(Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Dr. Zachary Ward. Dr. Ward practices NUCCA in Ames, IA.)
I was coming to the middle of my chiropractic education, knew over 100 different orthopedic tests, knew the 12 cranial nerves in detail, and could draw the brachial plexus and lumbar plexus by heart. I wasn’t even too bad at picking up spinal pathology on an x-ray.
We left school for Christmas break and visited family. A friend of a friend was visiting. We shook hands and in the exchange it was revealed that he was in his first year of med school, and that I was studying to be a chiropractor.
I looked forward to a possible camaraderie on the drudgery of anatomy labs, when he, in all earnestness asked me the following: “A chiropractor… is like an associates degree?”
My jaw hit the floor. And quite frankly it’s still there.
I think about the incident of the med school acquaintance when I get told how big my practice is going to be in the future.
As in: “Jane is on her third neurologists, and the abortives just make her a zombie. We’re hoping that her doctors will recommend that experimental procedure. But if the insurance won’t cover it, well, you’ll be the first place we call.”
Or: “I need to explore my options. Dr. Brown thinks that the pain is originating in my sinuses. I’ll check with the ENT doctor first. But I’ve got your card.”
Or this one: “He has an MRI scheduled for next month. If his headaches don’t go away by then, then we’re going to send him over the University Hospital. They’ll know what to do.”
If the surgery doesn’t work. If the pain doesn’t go away. If the meds don’t stop it. If they can’t find an answer. If we can’t see the specialist.
When there is nowhere else to go. We’ll call you.
I’m relatively new to practice and I’ve already gotten a few of these: “How come no one told me about this?” Or, “Where were you when I needed you 15 years ago?”
It’s always a bit weird to have both kinds of interactions in the same day. I wish I could have a super-hero power where I transport people through space and time, kind of like the Ghost of Christmas Future.
So when Bob says, “I wish I would have tried this before I went through with the surgery,” I can say, “Hold that thought,” and poof! I’ll pull up Jane who walked away from a consultation. “Jane, this is Bob. Bob this is Jane. You guys should talk.”
Look, I know it’s a strange world we live in, and people make decisions all the time based on subconscious cues even they don’t perceive. It could be that I have bad breath on those days when I get the “If this doesn’t work, we’re definitely coming in one day,” routine.
But, I also think about that med student, and I wonder if he still thinks my colleagues in his area are practicing chiropractic with an associates degree. I know that human psyche strongly yearns for the approval of authorities and wants to be affirmed that it has made okay decisions… especially in the case of managing chronic illness and disease. I have the cultural authority of an associates degree, and my patient’s primary care provider is working with the equivalent of a PhD. It’s a natural thought process to wonder why someone’s trusted physician doesn’t have my name in his Rolodex.
After all, if I could have helped with Jane’s crushing migraines, the neurologist would have told her parents already.
As the Doctor of Last Resort, there is a certain pleasure I feel in being able to help someone who hasn’t been helped by anything else. It was right under their noses, but they couldn’t see beyond the big lapels of their white coats. I’m thankful that the patient has found the help and healing that they’ve wanted. It’s a blessing to help facilitate that healing.
But I know, deep down, that the only reason they made it into the office, is that they finally had enough of the darkness, not because of some new enlightenment. They had enough of the pain, and the medications, and bouncing from specialist to specialist to finally say, “Medicine can’t help me.”
For everyone who finally makes it into our offices, there are thousands more who never get to make that discovery.
It feels good to help the one. The thousands are breaking my heart.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Healing and recovery requires timing beyond our control. Sometimes people need to be sick and lost before they are ready to be well again. Those who are ready will find the services and treatment which facilitates the healing they are seeking.
Raising the quality of care and specificity of analysis with lasting corrections allows us to become more available to those who need our services.
Here is another relevant article: http://lowforcedoctors.org/drleusden/2009/12/28/fewer-visits-lasting-corrections/
Perfectly written, Zach.
I have this same struggle within myself day in and day out. The highs of being able to provide a light in the darkness to someone who has been unable to find one through any other means paired with the ache of knowing how many suffer because they want to try every other option first – options with higher risks and lower efficacy rates.
If anyone comes up with a solution to that social mental hurdle, please share!
Our struggle, eloquently written. Thanks for putting my thoughts into words.
We have to make it a point to teach our patients
Innate Intelligence!
I have to agree with Jaime, You just put my thoughts into words. Thanks Zach and thanks Brandon for posting.
Thank you for reading, and for your kind comments. (Travis, I’m going to have to come see you your practice in Marion one day.) I’m happy to be able to put our experience into words. There’s a PhD thesis on the “Ethnology of the Upper Cervical Chiropractor” somewhere out there, for a lucky student of sociology.