I regularly get asked what I do for a living. When I tell them that I am a podiatrist, I usually get the same look you might see when someone passes by a stinky dumpster; or, from people who are more in touch with their facial expressions, the raised eyebrows.  I get it.  When you think of a podiatrist, what do you think of?  Gargoyle toenails? Foot fungus? While these things are a small part of being a foot doctor, you could compare it to your Family Practice physician treating a perirectal abscess (Google it if you’re not familiar… but make sure not to click the “image” tab!)… yikes, OK, it’s not really THAT bad.  The fact is that there is so much more to being a podiatrist than these things that you initially think of. Generally, the definition is that we are a physician specializing in medical and surgical treatment of all ailments of the foot and ankle. That means that we treat everything involving the foot and ankle with the expertise of someone who has trained greater than a decade to treat just that…the foot and ankle.  We treat the NFL running back that ruptures his Achilles tendon, down to your grandma whose rheumatoid arthritis is so advanced that she cannot fit her toes in her shoes; from ankle replacements to ingrown toenails. So, if you are having foot or ankle pain, an injury, an infection, or even Gargoyle toenails, Dr. Young and I are more than happy to do what we are passionate about: help our patients. Dr. Brian Schmidt