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My Twenty six Years plus as a podiatrist/Foot surgeon
Why did I become a podiatrist? (I ask this to myself everyday...,Just kidding!) When I was in high school, my father worked as a letter carrier. It was quite brutal on his feet, as he had Rheumatoid arthritis. He would often talk me into trimming his calluses with a razor blade. I was up to the task and actually mastered the craft. My dad quite impressed, mentioned that I should become a foot doctor. You mean there really was such a thing? After doing some research, it was apparent that this was going to be my career. I lived and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Decided to get my undergraduate degree at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. I majored in Biology with a minor in Chemistry.
After applying to four of the seven podiatry colleges in the country, decided to stay in sweet home Chicago. The Scholl college of Podiatric Medicine was then located on Chicago’s Gold Coast. The Magnificent Mile. Situated on North Dearborn. Yep! We are talking Rush Street, Michigan Avenue, State’s Street Etc. In 1986, the establishments were amazing! In those days, we would actually see the late great actor, Dennis Farina in his neighborhood near his home on Dearborn. He had just made it in Hollywood as an actor.
Podiatry school was very tough and quite challenging. The load of material was overwhelming at times. In our first two years, we learned virtually every disease process in the human body, anatomy from head to toe, radiology, dermatology, biomechanics, infectious disease and much, much more. There were exams every week. But Fridays...,Happy hour! Usually free food on Rush Street and yes we had to wash it down!
I finished my first year of podiatry school in the May of 1987. That same month, I married my wife Kathleen. She has been through this whole experience from day one. It is true, there is a woman behind every man’s success! We rented the top floor of a two flat in Evanston. I now took the L trains to school. In 1988, as the train stopped at Addison, you could see the helicopter carrying and installing the very first lights at Wrigley Field.
At the time it seemed forever, but in May of 1990, I graduated from SCPM or as some of us called it “Our Lady Of Scholl”. (The college is currently located at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago) Now it was on to residency training. Podiatry residencies in those days were very hard to come by. Most programs were one year and general podiatry. I was very fortunate to get a one year surgical program. It was rural and out of Harvard Hospital. No we are not talking Boston. Harvard, Illinois, the milk capital of the World. It was a small hospital, but was often quite busy. These rural hospitals usually serve as a triage center for many many miles around. It gave me some experience the ER and would get to suture wounds from various injuries. These small hospitals serve as a great place for elective surgery. We always got the OR time we wanted. We took care of a lot of feet there. A lot of dairy farmers and a lot of diabetes. I even scrubbed in on some general surgery cases there.
Some of my residency time and training was spent at St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. One quite memorable rotation was in orthopedics. My attending physician for this rotation, was Dr. Mark Carlson. I was with him on call one evening and were summoned to the OR with a victim of a severe truck rollover. He had fallen asleep at the wheel. His pelvis was crushed, lost his foot above the ankle and his nose was severed. His blood loss was beyond critical. And he was awake and talking! The operating team left such an impression on me. The job of orthopedics was to stabilize the pelvis as the bones were crushing blood vessels and nerves. I was taken back when Dr. Carlson had me tighten the rods on the external fixator after he pounded them into the stable surrounding bone. “Go ahead and tighten them!” It was an adrenalin rush. Three different surgical crews completed the twelve hour plus procedures. The victim survived. The brotherhood of doctors, nurses and all medical personnel was incredible. They were so freaking good! Dr Carlson would call me in for an occasional Briggs and Stratton pedicure. These were lawnmower accidents. It was a lot of cleaning and debriding. Dr Carlson used to mention someone named Bun a lot. It was then pointed out to me that he was referring to Bun Carlos. His brother who played drums for Cheap Trick. Dr. Carlson was also a drummer.
In the early part of 1991, my wife suspected that she was pregnant. Had grabbed a test kit from the lab at the hospital and I knew were going to be parents before she did. After doing hundreds of foot surgeries and completing all my rotations, it was August 1991 and it was time to get some work, especially with having a baby on the way.
That Fall we moved back to the Chicago area. I worked for various employers over the next eleven years. For most of that time, I worked on the Southside of Chicago. They were six day work weeks, a lot of driving, house calls, and early mornings at the surgical center. There were cases every week. From bunions and hammer toes to rare and unusual cancers we’d found in the foot. And there were always diabetic wounds and infections. I was very dedicated and took in everything a saw and learned something new every day. I would do house calls all over the Southside of Chicago. It had its moments! It was a lot of hard work and my days were long. But I learned so, so very much!
In 2002 I decided to buy my own practice. I found one in Dixon, Illinois. My sister lived in Sterling, and knew the area from our visits. We even bought our first home ever and it was in Sterling. It was a house we used to notice when we’d drive in. It was nice to get out of the city. My sister Wendy is a dentist. She had been employed by other dentists, until she had her own office built in Sterling.
Over the next ten years plus, I had performed surgery out of three hospitals in the area, KSB, CGH and MCH. As the world of health insurance changed, along with loss of manufacturing in the area, it became quite tough. Our numbers went way down. I could never have imagined this would happen. For several of those years I was also employed at Complete Wellness Medical Center. It was a very busy place. But like many other things it came to an end.
My office is the only independently owned and operated practice for 50 miles or so. With a decline in our numbers, I decided to move my office from Dixon to Sterling. We accomplished this with some incredible help from some amazing friends. My new place is located in my sister’s building, Wells Family Dentistry. I down sized and reeled it in so to speak. I decided to retire from performing hospital surgery. Some procedures such as nail surgery, joint aspirations and biopsies are still performed in the office.
My work week is down to 3 1/2 days now. I am extremely happy with my current situation. At this time in my life, I am doing what I absolutely love and that is writing and recording music. And am practicing podiatry in such a fulfilling way. There is such a wonderful balance in my life, that I am so focused and driven. In music I am affiliated with a few publishers: One Stand Entertainment London, Merf Nashville and Go DIY Records, Los Angeles. I have songs pending in three motion pictures. To even get this far is amazing to me.
So here is the Dukelow Foot Clinic brand: We are here to serve the public and make feet feel the best that they can. We will not push anything or any product on you. We make them available to you. We are a bit of a “Mom and pop” operation. We are down to earth. The doctor performs all work. We are fully independent and will give you our fully undivided time and attention to you. If you want a second opinion, we love to give those. We offer the best custom orthotics in the country. People always come back for another pair. We have hard working people come to us so they can continue to work. There is nothing like helping people to feel better. Especially when it comes to their feet. After all my hard years of practice, these are the best!
