She believed more than I did myself

Today one of my patients brought their son in. He couldn't walk-he had injured his foot from a fall. By the look of the foot, I thought that there must be a fracture and this lady should probably take this kid to the emergency room.

I told her what I thought-and she insisted that I at least check him and make SURE that I couldn't help.

I checked and couldn't confirm a fracture, so I started working slowly because the kid was in severe pain. I started seeing swelling decreasing almost instantly and in about 15 minutes of working, this boy could actually stand and put weight on his foot!

I asked the mom why they waited days to come to see me, when they could have just gone to the ER and had it looked at. She said "I didn't know if the ER could help, but I KNEW you could!"

She was much more sure of my ability than I was-And it got me thinking: "would you try harder to succeed at something if someone else was convinced of your success?"

Hmmm.. Something to think about.