Healing Hands

Story by Melanie Jones

A devastating motorcycle accident as a teenager changed the course of John Wisdom’s life. He hadn’t given much thought to what career he wanted to pursue before then. On the long road to recovery, he first thought he’d pursue a career in business administration. But his pain lingered.

Then he tried seeing a chiropractor. The accident left John in pain and nearly incapacitated, but the chiropractor helped. That relief was more than physical, it gave John a purpose. His chiropractor encouraged John to pursue a career in the field, going so far as to call the college and have representatives contact John about their program. “It was a good fit,” he says.

Turns out it was a good fit for his teenage sweetheart-turned-wife, as well. John and Joanne met in high school when he got in trouble for talking in the back of the classroom. “The teacher moved me up to the front of the room next to this pretty brunette. I asked her to go out with me that Friday,” John says. “The rest is history.”

Joanne was a year behind John in school, but she took honors classes to graduate early. “And I’ve been trying to keep up with her ever since,” John says. The couple attended the University of North Texas together, then graduated with their doctor of chiropractic degrees from Parker College of Chiropractic.

Joanne started out as a chiropractor, but soon saw a need for more exercise rehabilitation specialists and went back to school to study that. “While working in a rehab facility, I had doctors asking if anyone knew of an acupuncturist they could refer patients to,” she says. Nobody did, so she decided she’d go back and study again, this time doing a fellowship through the International Academy of Chinese Medicine. “So, slowly, over the years, my practice morphed from chiropractic to exercise rehab to acupuncture.”

Now, their businesses, Quitman Chiropractic and Acupuncture and Quitman Therapy and Rehabilitation, embrace all three specialties. Joanne does acupuncture. John is the office chiropractor, and they have staff offering physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy services.

A good internet connection is important to run a diverse practice. “Peoples is essential to the smooth operation of our business,” Joanne says. “Health care requires the use of complicated software to keep patient records and accounting, and we could not run efficiently without Peoples’ fiber. Peoples also maintains our local area network, and it’s great to have them close by to handle any computer issues we may have.

“Technicians are always quick and helpful anytime we have issues,” she adds. “We appreciate being able to have the choice in services of a huge company with the customer service of a small hometown business.”

Joanne explains that acupuncture isn’t weird or painful. The practice that developed in China has been around for thousands of years and grew popular in the U.S. from the 1970s into the 1990s. It was so popular by the time Joanne decided to study it in the early 2000s, she was able to do it right here in the U.S.

The procedure involves inserting “teeny, tiny needles” in certain areas of the body, Joanne says. Acupuncture needles aren’t like those used for medication injections. They’re not hollow to allow medication to flow through, so they can be super thin. “They slide in without being noticed,” she says. They’re also completely disposable and never reused.

While many people think being stuck with needles would make them tense up, Joanne says just the opposite is true. “Most people find it as relaxing as a massage,” she says.

Acupuncture can be used to treat a variety of health issues. Joanne is licensed to treat musculoskeletal problems such as arthritis, muscle tension and pain. But she points out that acupuncture was the only form of medicine in China for many years, so some practitioners can use it to treat most anything.

John still primarily focuses on the family chiropractic side of the practice, treating everyone from pediatric to geriatric patients. He also uses complementary treatments such as ultrasound and electronic muscle stimulation, also known as e-stim, if it would be too painful for the patient to make an adjustment otherwise. “They ease the muscles and swelling so I can make a better adjustment,” John says.

John enjoys helping others through his work. “I work on you to get you back to doing the things you love,” he says of his patients, knowing that, despite their pain and discomfort, “you have to get up and get busy every day.”

The chiropractic office is not a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday job for John. He’s in the office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. John is passionate about chiropractic, but he’s also passionate about flying, so he alternates days working in the office and working as a flight instructor.

Life would be different for John and Joanne if John had never had that motorcycle crash. It likely would have been a life with less pain, but it may also have had less purpose. They share the purpose of helping others.