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Quick Hit #1 Surgery is a PERSON, not a procedure.

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screen-shot-2016-12-04-at-10-44-08-amThree days ago, I had knee surgery. We’re not talking brain surgery, heart transplant, separating conjoining twins: knee surgery…..scope job. Not a big deal, right? Except to me.

You see, I have never had surgery before AND this surgery was strictly done with one thing in mind: to enable me to run again without significant discomfort, because, I am a runner. I’ve run for fifty years. The only thing I have done longer is be alive. This is HUGE, this is my life.

So when I write this after 72 hours, you would think I would know how it went, but really I don’t. No one has told me. Post surgery, I never saw my orthopedic surgeon. An assistant rolled in as I was coming to, I suppose, to “debrief” me and I remember nothing about any of it. I was five minutes from being unconscious!

My follow-up visit is Wednesday and I’m sure my doctor did a fantastic job. But, frankly, Wednesday is too late. Because while she may have done a great surgery, she didn’t do ME. She didn’t do the person. All it would have taken was one minute…. thirty seconds for crying out loud, to poke a head in and say, “hey, here’s what I did, here’s how I think it went, recovery quickly and I’ll see you Wednesday.”

The moment was there. The moment to connect, to stand out, to REACH out was there and my surgeon missed it. The moment to be better than every other surgeon that doesn’t even consider that moment was there and she missed it.

And while I’m not mad at her, it makes me mad because she is far from the only one missing the moment.  So, understand this: every interaction, every TRANSaction has a moment where it can be catapulted to a new, higher level of relationship, connection, and service. LOOK FOR IT. Don’t miss it.

Surgery is a PERSON, not a procedure.