When I was a new podiatrist in East Texas it was not uncommon to have a patient sit in my chair and compare me to their last podiatrist. For a new doctor you can imagine this was a bit unsettling because one is never sure how he measures up to the “competition”. Anyway, I’ll never forget my 85 year old patient who had decided to try out the “new guy” after years of driving to Shreveport to see her regular podiatrist. Curious about the podiatrist in Shreveport, I asked what he was like:
“Well”, she said, “He is very good. He is very gentle and very nice to talk to. He seems to be very knowledgeable and knows exactly what to say and when to say it. Oh, and he has wonderful hands. You can barely tell when he is working on you.” She continued’ ” His hands are incredibly soft and his fingers were long and tapered just so.” “I told him once that his hands were so nice they belonged on a woman” she exclaimed.
I asked her what his response was.
She said his reply was, “Sometimes they are!”
Lol, that is one of my favorite patient stories and is as true as I can remember it. I’ll bet he was a good podiatrist with a sense of humor like that.
