About Me

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I wear many hats. I am a Wife, Mother, Daughter, Granddaughter, Friend, Dental Assistant, Student, Big Sister, Daughter-in-law, Sister-in-law, Chef, Gardener, Nurse, Maid, Plumber, Seamstress...

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Perfect Gentleman

So you already know about Sherman by now if you've read my other post. On Tuesday he called the office to ask if I'd go to lunch with him to the Taco Shop. He said that he didn't want me to be jealous because he took Kelli out last week. I wish everyone could meet Sherman because he's so funny! So today was my lunch date with Sherman. He was the perfect gentleman. He opened up my car door for me to get in, ordered my lunch and pulled out my chair. So for the whole lunch hour he talked. I got a few questions in here and there but he did all the talking. I learned about his life, his career with the gas company, how he met his wife, his children, his time in the Army, how he learned to dance (he wants to teach me to dance), that he got an engineering/business degree at K-State, that he is selling his house and the new apartment he's moving into and all the issues he's had with that and I also learned that he walks quite a bit through out the day. No wonder he is so sharp and in such good shape for an 85 yr old! He told me that he plans to live to be 100. Later today he came in for his 2:30pm apt to get some cavities filled. While he was in the chair getting ready to have his fillings done he told Doctor all about our lunch date and told Doctor that as long as I was working there he'd keep coming in. Doctor just laughed and said "Okay". Before Sherman left we told each other how much fun we had at lunch, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and a hug. After Sherman left, Doctor told patients for the rest of the day about my lunch date with Sherman. I guess Doctor gets a kick out of it!
For those of you who are thinking that this is weird, it's not, you'd have to know our office and our patients. I work in a very small office. I am the only Dental Assistant and the only full time employee. The other one, Kelli, is a part time receptionist. If you come to our office expecting a glamorous upscale dental office where you'll be treated like a number rather than a person...you'd might as well leave. In April I will have worked at this office for 7 years and I've gotten to know my patients quit well. I know some of my patients better than others but the one thing that I like best about this our office is that our patients aren't numbers. To us our patients have faces, a life outside getting a filling or teeth cleaning, they have a family and a history. My boss takes time (sometimes too much time) to talk to the patients about their life and other things. Unlike other offices I've worked at it isn't drill, fill and hand over all your money. I have to say that so far Sherman is my favorite patient though. I always tease Doctor that when he retires that we need to get together to write a book about all of our craziest patients. We've got some stories to tell!

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