Knee News
By Naomi Karten
Randolph, MA
This is a story about an orthopedist whose handwriting wasn’t on a par with his surgical prowess. I saw Dr. Scribbling — as I’ll call him — several years ago for the surgical repair of a knee ligament that I ripped while downhill skiing (or, more specifically, downhill falling).
One week after my surgery, I went to see Dr. Scribbling for a follow-up. As I sat on the examining table, he gave my knee an orthopedic once-over and pronounced himself pleased. Indeed, the knee news was good news. The swelling was gone and my leg had much more flexibility than is typical at the one-week mark.
I asked him what I should do in order to continue my recovery. He looked around the examining room for something to write on. No writing paper. Then he spotted a wall-mounted rack of flyers. He grabbed a flyer (something about running marathons), flipped it over, and started sketching.
What he sketched was a knee. To me, it didn’t look much like a knee, but I assumed it was a knee because, well, I wasn’t there to discuss elbows. Pointing at different parts of the drawing, he explained how the surgery had transformed my knee from potentially unstable to good as new.
And then he outlined what I should do over the coming months to strengthen my leg. These activities are fine, but stay away from these others. Doing this is good, but doing that isn’t. Use this kind of exercise equipment, but avoid that kind. As he spoke, he jotted down what he was saying.
I don’t absorb spoken instructions well. Give me instructions in spoken form and within ten minutes, I’ll forget them. But give me instructions in writing and I’ll read and retain them. So it’s not surprising that by the time I reached my car, I’d forgotten what Dr. Scribbling had told me. Fortunately, I had his written notes. When I took a closer look, I saw that, true to his profession, his instructions were illegible. They were indecipherable. They were . . . scribblings.
The experience reminded me of some dental work that enabled my dentist to put his first-born through her freshman year. He carefully explained what he’d be doing and as he explained, he drew pictures. No words, just drawings. Most of his drawings were of teeth, but one was a drawing of a nutcracker, which he used to illustrate the different amounts of pressure needed to chomp down on something, and how this can result in damage to teeth — and maybe to nutcrackers as well, though he didn’t say. But I found the drawings very helpful.
During my final knee exam, Dr. Scribbling grabbed another flyer from the rack to jot down a few more bits of advice. Not surprisingly, his writing hadn’t improved in the interim. I listened especially carefully this time.
These experiences led me to appreciate that drawings can be an excellent way to communicate important information — especially if you can actually draw. Pre-printed information sheets can also be helpful. For example, if Dr. Scribbling had a sheet depicting typical kinds of exercise equipment, he could have simply crossed out the ones I should avoid or circled the ones I’d find most beneficial. And it seems like a good idea to keep writing paper handy in case you run out of marathon flyers in the examining room!
My key takeaway, though, is this: If you want people to follow your written instructions, make sure they’re readable.
Dr. Scribbling’s scribblings notwithstanding, I was able to ski again only six months after my surgery. I’d be comfortable seeing him again if skiing circumstances warrant. (Note to self: they’d better not!)
© 2009 Naomi Karten, naomi@nkarten.com, www.nkarten.com
Naomi Karten is a speaker, consultant, and author. To learn more about her work, go to www.nkarten.com. To contact Naomi directly, email her at naomi@nkarten.com.
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