Pain is a very hard thing to understand. I want to share the true story about my dad. My dad is one reason I got into chiropractic. I grew up on a farm in North Dakota. My dad quit farming due to back pain. When I had just started chiropractic college, my dad called me and said, “Spence, will you be able to fix my back? Because if you can’t, I’m going to have back surgery. My lower back is killing me.”

He had gone to some chiropractors and acupuncturist. Everybody said his lower back was messed up. They had him scheduled for surgery. At that point in my education, I had not even looked at a spine yet, but I thank God for a guy named Dr. Vern Pierce that came and talked to our college about correcting people’s spines. He taught me things I didn’t know were possible. I thought you just went to a chiropractor and got your back popped, and you felt better. When I learned about correcting spines, it intrigued me. I learned from Dr. Pierce a lot of what we do in this office.

When my dad called me and asked me if I could fix him, I right away told him, “No, I have zero experience, but there’s a chiropractor from Pennsylvania that I think is amazing.” He said something that blew me away. My dad said, “So do you think if I flew from North Dakota to Pennsylvania this chiropractor could help me?”

Now, I want to tell you something. He’s not one of these guys that spent a lot of money on his health. In fact, getting him to spend $5 on his health took a lot. So for somebody to consider buying a plane ticket, flying to see a chiropractor, states away, I knew how serious my dad was about his pain.

I called Dr. Pierce, and my dad flew to Pennsylvania. Here’s the unique twist about this story. They analyzed my dad’s spine and the nervous system, like we do in this office. They had motion x-ray, and guess where they found my dad’s major problem was with his spine and his nerves. It wasn’t in his lower back; it was in his neck.