Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Billy Cheong.
Dr. Cheong, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
How I got to where I am today took many twists and turns, but the experience truly molded me into who I am today and my passion for Chiropractic.
Chiropractic changed my life and I am forever grateful for it.
I’ve always been into sports, fitness, and health for as long as I can remember. I primarily played basketball and football throughout Junior High School and High School with my fair share of injuries. While struggling with a number of injuries, the treatment process was always the same and I never felt I got back to 100%. These treatments always consisted of regular check-ups, pain medication, periodic steroid injections, and a possibility of surgery if symptoms did not improve. Surgery was never an option in my mind, but it became a reality when it was recommended to me.
That’s when Dr. Baxter came into my life! While attending college, I worked part-time as a teller for Bank of America and one day happened to meet a Chiropractor, Dr. Baxter. I told him my story and he invited me to his clinic to show me what he does and how he can possibly help.
I had no idea what Chiropractic was at this time. Dr. Baxter was kind enough to let me shadow him at his office and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Patients with chronic pain worse than mine, struggling to walk in the door, would walk away from the treatment a different person! I couldn’t fathom how this was possible without an immense dose of pain medication. This was done naturally without medicine and I was told from many of his patients that Dr. Baxter had saved them from having surgery. I also noticed Dr. Baxter genuinely had love, passion, and enjoyment for what he did for a living. Now I am very intrigued.
I also ended up being a successful case of Dr. Baxter’s treatments. I no longer had pain, no longer felt like medicine was necessary, and any thought of having surgery was gone. I realized that this goes beyond just getting out of pain. This is about maximizing the quality of your life. I wanted to help people in the same way Dr. Baxter helped me and his other patients. That’s when I decided to become a Chiropractor.
I talk a lot about getting free from pain without pain medication because of the personal struggle I went through. At a young age, I had to rely on heavy doses of ibuprofen for pain. When that wasn’t enough, I started taking Vicodin and Hydrocodon. I became very reliant on these drugs! I started taking strong pain killers to play in games and hide my injury. Then my body just started relying on these drugs and I started getting withdrawals when I tried to stop taking them.
Fortunately, this is the time I met Dr. Baxter. I wonder now, what would have happened if Chiropractic hadn’t been introduced into my life. I think it’s amazing how he ended up in my teller line and took an interest in helping me. This nice gesture turned into something even more powerful, which is the very reason why I am here today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I will be the first one to say that I have been blessed my entire life. Moving to Houston for Chiropractic school was a struggle. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and I both put all our eggs in one basket! We spent our whole life savings to move here from Nevada so that I could pursue my dream to become a Chiropractor. Glad to say that we’ve made it through! I have opened my own practice and we have a family with two young kids, 2 and 3 years old.
One of the biggest struggles after opening up my practice was not one particular event. It was more of the day-to-day events! I am naturally inclined to be a clinician. My passion, my heart, and my mind takes me to a place where I’m naturally inclined to – PUT YOUR PATIENT’S FIRST! I love doing whatever it takes to make my patient’s feel better. However, there is not a class in school that tells you that being the best Chiropractor doesn’t automatically translate to income or what puts food on the table.
I opened my office the same month our 2nd child was born. Here I am with a very young family and now a family of 4 to support and no income!!! I just spent our whole life savings to open my DREAM practice and my student loan debt feels like a boulder hanging on my shoulder. Needless to say, it’s turned out great, but I struggled every day because being a business man was not my first inclination, but it’s a skill I’ve had to put much effort into learning and implementing. I was able to have great mentors to teach me how to be a great Chiropractor, but the first thing I realized when I opened my practice was that there wasn’t as many people who mentored me to be a great business owner! So it is still is an everyday goal of mine to better myself in this area because being a great clinician comes easy and natural to me.
Elite Spine and Health Center – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Elite Spine and Health Center is a full-service Chiropractic and Sports Rehab facility located in West Houston. We offer many services such as: Chiropractic services, Sports Rehab, passive modalities (Electrical Stimulation, Ultrasound), Traction, Graston, MFR, MAT, Kinesio/Rock Taping, cupping, cryotherapy, aqua therapy, weight loss, nerve conduction velocity testing, and ultrasound imaging.
Our mission is to change lives and help people regain control of their lives through health and wellness.
Elite Spine and Health Center was created to provide every patient with an experience. Have you ever had a Dr.’s appointment where you thought to yourself;” That Dr. was not personable” or “The staff was not professional or courteous” or “The office visit took 2 hours!” or “I couldn’t get in for an appointment until a month later”. With this in mind, I created our motto about the experience each patient will receive, which is “Feel The Difference”.
We want all patients to feel a difference in terms of their body, health, and wellness, but we strive to go beyond that. We want them to feel the difference from the moment they call to schedule an appointment to the time they leave our office. We want every patient to feel welcomed when they walk in and feel revived when they leave. Our mission is to provide a pleasant and refreshing experience.
We are a family practice that treats the full spectrum of patients from kids to seniors. We are experts in the field of sports injuries, whiplash-related injuries, and ergonomic-related conditions. One area I’m known for is sports because of my background working alongside the team Chiropractor of the Houston Texans and Astros as well as being the primary doctor for a lot of events (marathons, half-marathons, 5K/10K’s, triathlons, etc.). However, that’s not the only area I specialize in!!
I really am a Family Chiropractor. I have two kids ages 2 and 3 years old so I know firsthand how important natural Chiropractic care is for kids! I love kids and helping them develop healthy lives. I help people who suffers from chronic migraines, helping someone rehabilitate to their normal functionality after a car accident, or even helping a grandfather who wants to increase his quality of life to be able to spend quality time with his grandkids. I have a passion to be a healer and change lives and I am blessed to have this vehicle (Elite Spine and Health Center) to do just that and help people regain control of their lives. I guess that’s my long-winded way of saying I don’t just concentrate on one type of ailment, I specialize in getting people better without surgery or medication by addressing the root cause of their condition!
Elite Spine and Health Center has only been open for 2 years and I’m proud of our accomplishments, who we’ve become, and the reputation we have created within our community in that short amount of time. All of this is because of our patients. It’s amazing what can happen when you uphold a mission to take care of people because actions and results will end up speaking for themselves. I know I’ve said this a couple times already, but my passion is for my patients, their lives, and how I can help them.
What sets us apart are the results and the experience our patients go through at our office. I don’t think what we do is that different from other doctors, but we personalize every treatment plan, we have a passion to get each person to their goals, and we provide exceptional service. By doing that, we were able to achieve many accolades of being the top office and top doctor within the past 2 years.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2901 Wilcrest Drive, Suite 140
Houston, TX 77042 - Website: www.elitespinehouston.com / www.elitespinerehab.com
- Phone: 832-925-6004
- Email: frontdesk@elitespinehouston.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/elitespinehouston
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/elite-spine-and-health-center-houston
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
