Patient Testimonial:
It's been nearly a year, about time for another heartfelt expression of gratitude. Even as I was enduring that injection of Kenalog 80mg on January 4 I was grateful for your patience, gentleness, and all-round medical savvy. When I returned on the 25th it was pretty clear that I would not need another shot, and when I spoke with you over the phone on the 28th you went out of your way to advise me against the operation on my back that had been strongly recommended by two of the most prominent neurosurgeonsin the city, one at Rusk and the other at our own Columbia P&S. You may well have saved my life (you don't need me to teach you that hospitals may be dangerous to your health); you certainly saved me from a painful and as it turns out entirely needless, operation that, I was told, might take a whole year for full recovery. I walk, I talk, I teach LitHum-and I now know that the problem I had with my legs had absolutely nothing to do with my spinal column.
I remember telling one of my best graduate students, who had begun to doubt her abilities and had become suspicious of the professoriate in general: Hey, I know what you mean, and a lot of us are like that, but teaching remains the noblest profession-you get to help people without having to cut 'em up with a scalpel. Or. Chapman's the exception that proves the rule, at least where prominent neurosurgeons are concerned. Maybe this means that you get to tell Eric that if he requires help in diagnosing his patients...?
