New Doc
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As I've mentioned, Bob and I were interns together. I became an anesthesiologist, and he went into internal medicine. After a few years of neglecting myself, I hooked up with Bob and he became my doctor. Just because you know someone, however, doesn't mean that they're good at what they do. I asked several of my surgeon friends, and all of them said that Bob was a good, solid doc. One of them even said that Bob was his doc.
We had a good relationship for about 20 years. We were never friends, but we were always "friendly" if you know what I mean. He took good care of me and Mrs. George. It's funny to think that I've known Bob longer than I've known Mrs. George.
Anyway....
Bob retired on December 1. I knew that he was going to do that and I set up a visit (based on recommendations from Mrs. George's GI doc) with a new internist. Let's call him Joe.
I saw Joe in October (as did Mrs. George because Bob was her doc as well). When we finished our appointments, we were both..."Well, he's probably a good doc, but we just didn't click. I suppose he'll be okay, but I we just didn't 'click'."
Then, about 3 months ago, Mrs. George needed to be seen on a semi-urgent basis (high BP), and they got us in to see another doc in the system. Looking her up on the page, she's only been in practice for about 2 years. Trained at Cook County. We were both blown away with how personable, accessible and friendly she was. She seemed to be totally competent, and most importantly, she knew what she didn't know. She was a delight.
We told her that we'd both like to transfer our care from "Joe" to her, and she seemed to be honored that we'd do that.
I had my annual physical with her today. Totally great. As I said, friendly, accessible and, apparently a good person. Both Mrs. George and I know enough to see when someone's an idiot, or doing something wrong. She was not.
I'm pleased with my new doctor.
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It is important to trust your doc. I fire anyone I don’t like.
I got a phone call from one of my former partners this weekend. He's almost 80 years old, and we talked about life, family, health, and our docs.
He told me that he had a gastroenterologist, and though he seemed competent, he just "didn't like him."
If you don't like someone, you, IMO, cant trust him/her.
Fire him. It's your choice, your health, and your life.
I have zero regrets about firing "Joe," even though I only saw him once.
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Yeah, when I was a young guy, I wisely found a very competent young doc who was recommended to me. One of my MD friends said it was amazing that I was this doc's patient as he was the physician to a lot of VIPs in Chicago. I've now seen him for 35 years - but I know at some point I'm going to be left in the lurch when he retires. We share a passion for music and every visit is a discussion of music, performance, recordings, etc. Anytime I call, I am dealt with promptly. Part of the challenge of dealing with someone new will be making sure they actually listen and are responsive to what they're told.
