Letter #7

Dear Future Doctor,

I am sure that you hear this all the time but why not I am going to say it again. Thank you so much to dedicating your life to medicine. I know what a huge devotion of your time, effort, blood, sweat and family time is it to be a physician. I am currently in college to be a PA.

As my summer job I am an assistant at a physician group at home and have seen first hand how much they give up and sacrifice in order to help patients.
When I saw the request for this I couldn’t help but write. I have been blessed my whole life with great health that is until now.

As soon as I arrived at college from Winter Break I began feeling not right at all and went to the student health center where I was greeted by a doctor who told me that I was fine with a simple bladder infection and to go rest in my dorm and promised I would be fine. After working in healthcare the fact that he promised something that he couldn’t guarantee should have set off red flags but it didn’t.
That inner soul we all had told me something was wrong with that but me being 19 years old went along with that, my mother thank god didn’t. As many mothers will confirm to you they know when their child is sick even if they are 2 hours away. So that right there is my first piece of advice trust your instincts but even more trust your patient and their families instinct.

She called my physician at his office told him what was going on and within 15 minutes of that he called me himself. He stayed cool, calm and collected in what was a scary situation for me told me exactly what I needed to do then made the choice that it was best for me to drive home. The next am he came into the office bright and early to see me. At that time I was scared to death he could tell and the thing he said that made me relax was “You’re here and OK and its time for me to worry that’s why I am your doctor”. That right there made not only me relax but it made my family be calm as well. After examining me he said OK you do need to be admitted to the hospital but here is why… That was huge it showed me he had reasoning to back up why I needed to be in the hospital

I ended up being directly admitted to the hospital from his office with a case of Acute Pyelonephritis and spent the next 5 days in the hospital. As you know this isint a good illness to rest and wait this is a illness that needs immediate IV antibiotics. If I had done what the health center said I wouldnt be here to write this letter to you.

When I finally got to the hospital I was quickly admitted and put on meds to stabilize me. My dr came everyday even on the weekend and was easily able to talk by phone if needed during the day. The residents of the hospital were good for the most part but they forgot one thing... It is that before you examine a patient come in their room talk to them about anything but what is wrong with them. It is just another way to show you care about more then just the etiology of their illness. I found that a lot of the residents forgot that and treated me more like a science experiment then anything else.

When I finally did get discharged I went and saw my doc for a follow up before I went back to school. He gave me a medical excuse note for missing class and a card with the phone number for his office directly so that if this happened while I was at school again I didn’t have to go back to the health center. All and All that man is my new hero. He made a highly stressful situation so much easier to manage. My final piece of advice is that if any of you go into private practice please take note of your staff including nursing, receptionnests, techs or whatever. If they are rude and nasty to the patients you will lose patients. It doesnt matter how good of a doctor you are if the girl who makes appointments is rude or hangs up on people !
Thank you all so much for dedicating your life to medicine and remember your patients are people too they are someone’s mother, wife, husband, father, sister, brother, daughter or son. Treat them as you would wish your mom or child would be treated and all will work itself out in the end.

Good Luck,
Sarah