"...doing that one full and complete...[practice physical] exam was amazing. It was like making pottery or woodworking-- detailed, precise, careful. It was my first inkling that medicine was not only a science but also a craft. Everything mattered, everything was important and told a story. The patient's hands-- their warmth and dryness or cold and wetness; their nails, palms, pulse; the texture of their skin and hair; the presence or absence of lymph nodes-- and that was just up to the elbow."