09/13/2021    Joel Lang, DPM

"My Feet Are Killing Me"

I think the program "My Feet Are Killing Me" (The
Learning Channel) is a great public relations
entity for the profession. However, am I the only
one who thinks that the doctor taking off the shoes
and socks of an able-bodied patient is "weird"? My
doctor does not help me undress. For one thing, the
touching of shoes, which are inherently dirty, with
or without gloves, contaminates anything else that
might be touched.

When I was in practice, upon entering a room, the
patient had already shed his/her footwear, but the
feet were covered with a towel, so that the feet
were not the first thing I met when entering the
room. I was able to first focus on the patient, not
his/her feet.

I also think that allowing the presence of other
persons in the room is inappropriate. What happened
to patient privacy? Also, I did not want the
visitor to become faint watching procedures that
made them uncomfortable. That would only lead to
having two patients in the room to treat. I feel
this is also true for the other Learning Channel
program, "Dr.. Pimple Popper", that I also watch
regularly. Of course, the exception was a parent
accompanying a minor child.

Further, lying a patient down for any painful
procedure was my policy. My justification was that
if you were "lying down", you could not "fall
down".

Lastly, I often hear the doctors on the program
say, "This is the worst . . . . I ever saw." This
is often said about the severity of conditions I
have personally seen many times in the past. Such a
statement does not make the patient feel better and
might indicate that the doctor has not seen many
such conditions and is less than fully qualified to
manage the condition.

Am I also the only one who feels that the post-
surgical results are often less than optimal?
Digits that should be straight after the effort
expended, should look better than they sometimes
do. Particularly, the last episode (09/09/2021)
showed less-than-optimal results.

I am a big fan of the program, but feel that some
things could be improved for the benefit of us all.

I would like to hear other comments.

Joel Lang, DPM, (retired), Cheverly, MD

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