Meet Dr. Darren Silvester
“Hi, this is Dr. Silvester at the Next Step Foot and Ankle Clinic, and I’m going to introduce myself self to you a little bit, so you can kind of get to know me and know a little bit more about why I became a podiatrist and what we do here.
First of all, the story of why I became a podiatrist – I was at college and had an ankle problem. Because I was on a sports team, I had access to our college trainer and then also I had access to the orthopedic surgeon who was assigned to our team. They treated me for a while and didn’t really take much interest in me because I was probably not as good at sports as I should have been, so I wasn’t one of their lead athletes.
A friend of mine suggested that maybe I visit with a podiatrist, so I did. I was very impressed with how attentive he was and his knowledge and he was able to get me started on a treatment program that helped quite a bit, fairly quickly.
At the time, I was looking for a career in medicine and I thought, “Well I’ll ask this guy if I can come over and watch him work for a while.” He was kind enough to let me do that. I spent the next two to three weeks in his office, seeing patients and walking around with him and asking questions. It was a terrific experience for me, so I decided to go to podiatry school. My wife and I packed up and a year later we went to podiatry school and now we’re here in South Texas.
I like being a podiatrist because, first of all, the career is always changing. The things we do this year are much different that even five years ago. There are a lot of advancements that I’ve been able to incorporate into my practice, there are always things that are new and exciting that are coming down the pike that help me provide better service and get my patients better.
I love coming to work. My favorite day of the week is Monday, because I get a whole week of seeing patients and being able to help people – it’s very rewarding!
Our practice here is oriented towards our patients. We try to take care of their problems and worry about what’s bothering them and try to fit our programs and treatments into their lives to make their lives better. That’s in a nutshell why I like being a podiatrist and what brought me to this career.
The boring stuff is that I am board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. I’m a fellow of the America College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. I am a fellow of the Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons. In my practice, I specialize in the treatment of neuropathy, flatfoot conditions, and diabetic feet, especially people with diabetic foot ulcers. We also treat other standard podiatry conditions like fixing digital deformities like bunions and hammertoes – we’re pretty aggressive in that.
If you have a foot or ankle problem, or if you’re having pain that isn’t getting better please consider us as a source for both education through our website and as possible treatment through our clinic. Thanks for listening!”