The Good Doctor

Our family doctor makes house calls. In fact she makes a house call to us every four or five weeks because B has to be routinely seen and have prescriptions written for his anti-spasm medication and his physical therapy. She's even made a house call to us on a Sunday that was also a holiday when she had a house full of guests because B was so sick with pneumonia. So having a doctor who is so dedicated to our care should mean I should let the following slide.

Dr. K came over today for her regular visit. She always comes over on Thursday afternoons and she always takes a break with us to have coffee and cake. While she's here she checks over B, does anything with me that needs to be done (I'm diabetic so her treating me at home means I skip going into her office) and also checks over my MIL. Three patients with one house call! Efficiency!

Today Dr. K breezed in and said "I'm all messed up today. I left the office without your patient cards!".

Messed up indeed. That meant no prescriptions could be written. And the stuff she needs to take my blood for it's quarterly check was with my card so that got left behind as well. Today's visit pretty much consisted of giving B a look-see, taking our blood pressure and sitting down for a cup of coffee and a piece of my MIL's homemade plum cake.

Now I wasn't mad about this even though this means my MIL needs to go by her office to pick up our prescriptions and I have to get up early, early, early one day next week to go in to her office to have my blood taken before the lab comes by for its pick-up. I was going to have to go by her office anyway because I need a flu shot before I leave for the US. I'm not getting on any plane without first having a flu shot. I wasn't mad or irritated - I was actually sort of...sad. That sad feeling you get when someone forgets you. And it was silly to feel that way because I know how crazy busy Dr. K is. She has a huge practice with lots and lots of old patients and she sees dozens upon dozens upon dozens of patients a day. It's one of the reasons we always serve her coffee and cake when she's here - it's one of the only breaks she gets. Her forgetting to pack our patient cards is completely understandable. But it still bummed me out a little. I seem to have left-out-and-forgotten issues.

During our coffee and cake Dr. K was telling us about how over the past weekend she went through her patient files and purged files for patients who had moved or died or hadn't been in to see her in ten years. She said she had a ton of files and it felt good to purge herself of all those files that were only taking up space. That is until she came across the patient file for B's father. B's dad passed away twelve years ago so he would definitely fall into the category of patients who should be purged. But when she found the file she couldn't do it. She just tucked him back in the drawer next to B and his mom and me. She said she just couldn't take him away from us and wanted to keep something of his by which to remember him.

I stopped feeling left out and forgotten.