Truman Customer Story Column
What Short Answers Can Say
When we receive review questionnaires, some people write densely and some finish in a word or two.
The person I'll introduce today is the latter. He answered every item briefly. Yet when I laid those short answers side by side, it became a story no less than a long review. Let me copy them in order.
Pre-surgery worry: "None in particular"
To the item asking about worry before surgery, this patient answered that there was none in particular.
Of course, few people have no worry from the start. But once they hear the whole process in the consultation, sometimes the worry becomes such a short single line. To the item asking about his first impression of the clinic, too, the entire answer was that it was comfortable and kind. Comfort is, by nature, a feeling that needs no long explanation.
We don't explain in order to obtain a surgical consent form. If any question remains, we explain again however many times, and we bring the patient into the operating room only when they say their tension has eased. That "no worry" was written for this item means, I think, that the conversation did its part.
The surgery: "Ended easier and more painlessly than expected"
This is the line he left when I asked about his memory of the surgery.
If the reflection on a surgery deliberated over for years is this single line, I read it as a good sign. But because the degree of pain and the pace of recovery differ from person to person, I add that this is his case.
The surgery is done under local anesthesia with an injection around the areola. The last words the patient hears are, "This will sting, please bear with just this part." The actual operating time is about thirty minutes, shortened considerably through years of accumulated surgical know-how. Because a shorter operation is safer for the patient, I regard this part as important.
What he wants to do: "Go to the pool"
This is the answer to the item asking what he most wanted to do after surgery. Again, just a few words.
The pool is one of the places those worried about gynecomastia have avoided the longest. A place where you have to take off your top. Within this short answer, I think, are all the summers he couldn't go.
Gynecomastia surgery, I believe, addresses not only the physical change but the psychological part as well. The posture of a man walking with his shoulders back appears when he is undiminished and confident. Especially for younger people, I regard it as more important because that confidence can sway other areas of life too.
And the final item
To the item asking for a word to others with the same worry, he left an answer to the effect that he'd recommend it. Of course this is his experience, and whether to have surgery is something to decide after confirming your own condition through an examination.
And in the last box, for writing what he wanted to say to the clinic, this was written:
"May you prosper."
The last greeting of a man of few words was this. We laughed for a good while, and it seems it will stay with us long. There is a satisfaction that comes through fully even in short answers.
It's fine if you can't say much. I hope you won't worry alone but will come and have a conversation. I can't promise to solve everything, but most people leave with their questions sorted out. I sincerely want to help.
