What does it mean?

When her 99-year-old patient confessed
he drank thirty beers every week,
the doctor wondered if he was exaggerating.
She suspected most of her patients
lowballed that answer on the standard questionnaire.
Three drinks really meant ten;
five meant a bender or two.

“And how are your taste buds?”

“My taste buds?”

“Last time you told me your daughter
gave you some fancy chocolates
but you couldn’t taste the chocolate.”

“Did I?”

“It must have made
a greater impression on me than it did on you,”
the doctor smiled, jotting a note.