Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A Story of a Great Doc

There are bad doctors. There are so-so doctors. There are good doctors. And lastly, there are exceptional doctors,the ones that you will never,ever,ever forget.

This is the story of an exceptional doctor.


It was the best of times,it was the worst of times. It was many years ago,and my health was non-existent with a storm of puzzling,vague,weird symptoms that made my life non-livable 24/7/365. It's hard to get into what that was like,
for it was no kind of a life at all. There were doctors(and more doctors),and tests,and weird abnormalities that did not fit any specific disorder. It was a long,depressing process...and guess what,I was told that I was depressed.(which I was,by that point,but it made me mad to be told it was all "in my head") After the World's Worst Seizure,(and a subsequent workup at Big University) no one told me it was all "in my head" anymore,but answers weren't exactly forthcoming either.And then I went to an ENT(quite possibly,the only specialty I hadn't seen,by that point) I had all these symptoms that were being treated,and no "big picture."

It wasn't hard to like him,this young,charismatic doc with a boundless sense of optimism. He had a plan,& that plan involved figuring out WHY I was as dizzy as a drunken sailor 24 hours a day.After several tests,it was discovered that my eyes/ears didn't track well with my equilibrium & so I underwent "balance training" to try and fix that. What did I have to lose,my brain was on the fritz anyway.Eventually,things got better in that regard(as well as the rest of the health drama) but I think the best thing he gave me was the renewed sense that I was right,& not nuts,no matter what the medical profession did/did not find.A couple years after that,he took out my tonsils and since then,he's been my allergist doc.(all is status quo in that regard too,my allergies haven't been that bad this year) I don't think he ever once chewed me out about anything D-related,(in direct contrast to any other doc I've ever had)which makes him an extremely rare HCP.

Diagnostic Skillz...he's got it.

Bedside manner...he's got it.

Surgical prowess...he's got it.

Cuteness...he's got that too,& let's be honest,anything that goes easy on the eyes is conducive to the healing process. (even for married folk,though that's where it stops)Everybody likes him, he's that kind of a person.

There are good doctors,in every specialty,and when you meet one...you will know it forever.They go above & beyond the Hippocratic Oath,& make the world a better place.They make medicine what it is meant to be. And I think that whatever your definition of a great doc is,there are probably elements of most of the above in it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 comment:

Minnesota Nice said...

Yup. I agree - you'll know it when you meet one.