From a young age, the growth, development, and physiology of the human body always fascinated me. Its complexities have always aroused curiosity in my mind and this is one of the main reasons why I became interested in podiatry. Although podiatry is a challenging career because often the patient population presents multiple morbidities such obesity and diabetes, I believe it can be personally rewarding and enormously gratifying to motivate patients to change their lifestyle and improve their overall quality of life. I originally gained interest in podiatry through my family members, most of whom are healthcare practitioners themselves. At a county medical center, I had an opportunity to job shadow a variety of different medical specialists for a period of two months and podiatry stood out in particular. Podiatry is a discipline that combined both the critical thinking of diagnose and the practice of surgery. Not only would the podiatrist diagnose the underlying medical issue, but he would also perform the surgery to correct it.
The personal bond that is formed between healthcare practitioners and their patients makes this experience personally gratifying. Each day I spent at the medical center with a podiatrist, I gained more insight into the science and art of healing the human body. One case in particular stood out. It was the case of an elderly diabetic male, who was on the verge of having his right foot amputated due to gangrene. I empathized with the patient and thought about all the changes he would go through in his life if he had his foot amputated. How would he be able to deal with mundane tasks that healthy individuals take for granted, such as driving? The podiatrist I was job shadowing at the time thought it was worth the effort to give it one last shot to try and save the patient’s foot from amputation. We would extensively educate the patient about his