What’s your Chiropractic fish hook?
Did you ever go fishing with your Dad? Just the two of you with fishing poles, a Hershey chocolate bar (with almonds, of course!), your trusty lure box and a dozen night-crawlers…it doesn’t get any better.
My dad and I were at the pond at Hale Reservation surrounded by the woods and beaches of Westwood, MA. It’s a warm summer day and there are some awfully large bass and pickerel to be caught. I have already tangled my line, lost more than one great bass, got my lure stuck in a tree, and suddenly I felt an excruciating pang, looked down, and saw blood.
The barbed fishhook had gone straight through my hand…ouchhhh! The pain was horrible, but the fear and anxiety made it so much worse. I kept crying and crying, hoping my Dad could do something. He tried to wriggle it out, which of course only made it bleed and hurt all the more.
My Dad paddled the canoe back to the shore and we hurried back to the car. I remember one particularly ignorant person saying from the beach “Does he have a fishhook stuck in his hand?” (I can’t print how my father responded) When we arrived at the local MDs office, he took one look at my hand and said to me, “we’ll fix this right away.” I thought to myself, he is going to have to deaden the area and then back the hook through my hand; it’s going to hurt so much more than it does now! Then a miracle happened…he simply snipped the barb that had punctured my skin and slid it out easy peasy.
The fish hook reality
I think so many DCs are trapped in what appears to be hopeless situations, but in reality, they aren’t. Maybe you’re an associate who isn’t being paid or recognized as a DC, even though you know you could knock it out of the park if you had the opportunity. With my childish, limited thinking, I figured there was no way to get that hook out other than the way it went through my hand. The MD had a different way of looking at things. He had expertise and experience that my Dad and I didn’t have and probably would never have acquired.
On planet TNR, we rarely meet DCs who lack doctor skills, diagnosis, or academic preparedness. Rather, it’s about confidence, understanding how a patient reacts (or fails to react), and making that deep emotional connection of trust. You didn’t learn these skills in Chiropractic College, but without them, you will be painfully yanking out hooks the wrong way for the rest of your career. We hate seeing DCs go through this because there is a much easier and more fulfilling way, both for the patient and for the doctor.
How will you know you’re pulling the hook out the wrong way? It’s when people laugh at your recommendations, when they howl at your fees, when they don’t refer and ask about insurance coverage every single visit. It’s when you have a great difficulty asking for money and commitment or speaking in front of people. It’s when you see your debt levels skyrocketing with no end in sight.
You see doc, it’s your choice how you pull the hook out of your hand. For those DCs who want the quickest, least painful way to successfully practice the way you choose, click or call TNR and that hook is as good as gone!
