COEUR d'ALENE - When Larry Emery, D.C., began his practice in Coeur d'Alene 42 years ago, only two other chiropractors were in the area. The field of chiropractic was more hands-on and less cluttered with paperwork.

"It was better in the old days when it was a cash basis, and it was $7 for a treatment," the almost 72-year-old chiropractor said. "The patient would say, 'When do you want me to come back doc? See you Friday, I'll be here.' It wasn't so bad back then, but with insurance companies, it's not as good of an environment to practice under."

So now, with the expenses of technology along with insurance technicalities and other changes to the field, it is a great time for Emery to retire.

"The patients haven't changed, the techniques haven't changed, but the circumstances under which you practice have changed, and not for the better," Emery said.

His last day at Coeur d'Alene Chiropractic was Wednesday. He spent his last two weeks in the clinic shadowing the incoming chiropractor and introducing him to patients and their idiosyncrasies. The practice is changing into the hands of Houk Chiropractic, a chiropractic office that he is confident will do well to take his patients.

Emery sat on an exam table in a room with a model of a spine on the wall. His blue eyes glimmered in the dim light as he spoke of his experiences working as a chiropractor for almost 50 years.

It all began when he visited a chiropractor after suffering a high school football injury.

"I got hit and my ribs went out, I couldn't breathe for a week," he said. "He put his hands on my back, they were bigger than catcher's mitts, and crunched my back, and he said, 'Stand up son, take a deep breath,' and I took the first deep breath that I'd had."

Emery also saw a chiropractor when he was 9 because of a neck injury, but the football injury set the wheels in motion. When his ex-wife was pregnant and had to see a chiropractor to become mobile again, he really discovered his passion.

"I took off for California with three kids, no job, no money, no place to live, on a hope and a prayer," he said.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Emery attended the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, which is now the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He graduated valedictorian of the 1968 class and worked full time while going to school. He supplemented the three hours of sleep he would get each weeknight with sleeping four hours on the weekend, followed by lots of study time.

"It's something I really wanted to do," he said. "It proves that you can almost do anything if you set your mind to it."

He then went to work with a seasoned chiropractor in California when he was new to the field.

"That was the best experience of my life because I could take his X-rays, draw blood for him, do his examinations and work as his chiropractic assistant," he said. "I learned everything from the ground up."

He found himself in Idaho after deciding he didn't want to raise his kids in "smogsville," so through some connections and luck he moved his family to Coeur d'Alene.

"It just seemed like it was supposed to be, it was so easy to get into practice," he said. He opened for business with another chiropractor in 1970.

Through the years, Emery has built strong relationships with his patients. On the day of his retirement, he got to see an 89-year-old patient he first saw in 1972.

"He was scheduled for surgery, and we treated him, he went back to his surgeon, and he says, 'No, I went to a chiropractor," Emery said as he explained the patient's experience. The surgeon replied to the patient "'You're going to take the advice of a quack over a medical doctor?' and he said 'Well, he's helping me,' and he's never had surgery since."

"It's kind of nice to see that in the last few days of your practice," Emery said. He has a multitude of similar stories, including discovering that a patient had cancer because of a high protein count.

Emery said the patients have been the most rewarding part of his career.

"Chiropractic's unique in that it's hands-on," he said. "With medicine it's pretty much the knife and the needle and the prescription pad... that's the nice thing about chiropractic, you're one-on-one with the patient, and that's a relationship that patients don't have any other place."

Retirement for Emery means travelling to see family and tending to the gardens on his eight acres. He said he is the oldest physician in Coeur d'Alene.

"All the medical doctors who were here, all the chiropractors, all the physical therapists, they've either all died or moved away or retired," he said. "That reminds you how long you've been in practice, and it's not a good thought, you know, but I'm quitting while I'm still healthy, and that's the main thing."

He also said he will need to go in for surgery himself.

"My hands have actually stopped me from practicing, not my heart," he said. He needs carpal tunnel surgery on both his hands and has metacarpal joint damage in one area.

"When it hurts you more than it helps the patient to get an adjustment, you know it's probably time to quit," Emery said.