Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Smart Cookie

My patients often make me laugh. Yesterday I had a young lady in to see me at the office that really cracked me up.

This young lady came in with her mom and her brother to get adjusted. I know the family well, it is a big family that reminds me much of mine back home. There are four daughters and their husbands and all their children and the parents of the four daughters. As far as I know the entire family comes in and sees us for all of their Chiropractic care.

It just so happened that on this occasion I was seeing a brother and a sister that I have not yet adjusted, they had only seen Paul.

I adjust the young lady first and I talk to her a bit about how she was feeling and why she was in that day. I showed her some range of motion stuff you know; pre-adjustment ROM compared to her ROM after her adjustment that sort of thing. I give her some exercises and some stretches and tell her to come back in a month for maintenance care.

I then adjust her brother, we go through some of the same stuff, but specific to how he is feeling. I talk to him about nutrition and a bit about allergies and ask to see him in a month for maintenance.

When I am wrapping things up, the young lady says to me..."You must have gone to school for a very long time, you are way smarter than that guy we usually see."

I laughed until I was in tears.

I guess you have to know Paul a bit to understand why I laughed so hard. Paul is crazy smart, he is so smart that sometimes he is so far ahead of me I wonder if I will ever catch up and sometimes I think he so smart it puts him a bit behind the rest of us, if you know what I mean.

I told the young lady that Paul and I went to the same school for the same amount of time, Paul just spoke to her about different things than I did, because he saw her body differently than I did.

I really believe that in our office Paul spends far more time on pt. education than I do. He is so good at teaching pts about their bodies and it is one of the big things that sets our practice apart from others in town. Paul and I both love to teach, what I said just resonated with her more than whatever Paul had to say.

4 comments:

memoriestoremember said...

It's always so funny when patients don't connect the two of you as being married or at the very least knowing each other. Teenagers in particular will say "the guy" or "the woman", or "the wife".
It's also funny because I have never thought of patient education in any medical field as being determined by the length of schooling. More to do with personality.
Both Paul and yourself are smarty pants.

Shannon said...

Maybe it has it's because you're a woman, and women (just in my own experience) communicate differently than men do.

Wudas said...

Did it ever occur to your patient that you both had the same last name? Maybe they think you guys are brother and sister.

angie, party of one said...

That is funny. I think you're just as smart as Paulie, Kelly Anne.