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Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
Practice Perfect Editor
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Podiatric Medicine
Surgery & Biomechanics
College of Podiatric Medicine
Western University of
Health Sciences
St. Pomona, CA |
This holiday season I received two of the most wonderful presents.
My first gift came a few days ago, when I saw one of my diabetic patients for follow-up about three months after surgically addressing a chronic plantar first metatarsal head ulceration. After suffering from her wound on and off for 3 years, she'd had a tibial sesamoidectomy first, soft tissue mass excision for a presumed mass as the etiology (both by someone else), then a Jones tenosuspension (by me). Each of these procedures failed to resolve her ulceration. Finally, after surgery number four for this poor lady (I did an endoscopic gastrocnemius recession, plantar fasciotomy, and peroneus longus tenotomy), she finally healed. I was a nice moment for both my patient and for me.
 My second gift came in the form of a patient with a very painful end-stage flatfoot that I repaired about 10 months ago. Similar to the first patient, this gentleman had prior flatfoot surgery by another physician, which had bought the patient several years. However, after failing to reduce his pain nonsurgically, I performed a triple arthrodesis. I spent quite a bit of time with this patient, both pre- and postoperatively, and became quite close with him. He was one of those patients with which I greatly enjoyed just having a simple conversation. He had a relatively slow recovery, but the day after I had seen the first patient, he returned relating his pain-free status and excitement to return to work. At the end of our visit, this very tall and large man grabbed me into a hug, thanking me for everything I had done.
For most of us in podiatric medicine (and perhaps the entire field of medicine), this is the reason we became doctors in the first place. It's easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind, dealing with insurance companies trying to tell us how to practice, watching what's going to happen with the national health plan, or worrying about paying the bills. But it's moments like these that remind us just why we spent so much time training to be doctors.
To all of you, I wish you the happiest and healthiest of holiday seasons and hope you will receive from your patients the same gifts I receive from mine.
Best wishes.
Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]
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