Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
Practice Perfect Editor
Mountain View
Medical &
Surgical Associates,
Madras, Oregon
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Happy Holidays!
The holidays are here! I can tell this is true, not because of the various office parties or the decorations. I can tell because of the vacant look of happiness on the faces of all my staff, whether it’s the office or the hospital. I can almost see the visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.
Unfortunately, pathology doesn’t take a holiday. Let’s take my patient who just suffered a Lisfranc fracture dislocation. His Christmas and New Year holidays are going to be spent recovering from his surgery. Or how about another of my patients who fractured her ankle when she slipped on some snow? We all know how her Christmas will be spent.
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One of my old attendings in medical school said, “Pus doesn’t take a day off.” It’s really a significant statement when you stop to think about it. This is what distinguishes doctors from the rest of the medical community and the community in general. Our job doesn’t have regular 9 to 5 hours. If there’s an emergency at 2 AM Christmas morning, we’ll be in the ER or on the hospital floor administering to our patients. That abscessed foot or septic ankle will not wait for the holidays to end. Very few (if any) jobs have our level of responsibility and its associated inconveniences.
I say this not as a complaint, but to honor all of us in the medical profession. It may be true that some of us will be stuck in the hospital rounding, while our spouses and children wait for our return to open those anticipated gifts. But while you’re seeing that patient with the cellulitic limb, remember that no one else in the world can affect another person’s life the way we can. Doctors are revered around the world for a reason – and we deserve it. We’ve donated years of our lives in the pursuit of improving others’ lives. What can be nobler than that?
So this holiday weekend, when you are in the OR while the rest of the country is opening presents and drinking eggnog, know that we all take our hats off to you in mutual respect. I personally applaud all you do and know the world would come to a grinding halt without us. Happy holidays to all. I’ll see you in the hallways this weekend – I’m on call too.
Keep writing in with your thoughts and comments or visit eTalk on PRESENT Podiatry and start or get in on the discussion. We'll see you next week. Best wishes!
Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]
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