Funny thing....I used to think that doctors were God-like. I was brought up that way. I can still remember the name of my Grandmother's Doctor when she was my age and I was four years old. He was just admired that much. I vividly remember my pediatrician and the doctors of my parents when they were young. I even married into a family where a 5x7 picture of the family doctor still sits among photos of the family.
There was a point that I was in awe of a contemporary whose parent had achieved this status. Well into my adult life I was shy and awestruck around doctors. My goodness who wouldn't be with all the education they had? I was sure that their every move and decision was infallible. My personal favorite physician was my OB-GYN who I started seeing at eighteen, he delivered my first child and except for the six years I lived out of state was my Doctor until he retired when I was fifty. I loved to talk to him after my checkups, our lives became similar and I trusted his advice. In the early-90's as what I consider the beginning of the prescription drug epidemic, I heard friends talking of pills that helped them lose that extra ten pounds, cured the stress of small children or PMS, I asked my Doctor to get me on board. He told me to buck up and deal with it and never gave me a prescription.
It didn't take me long to realize the value of that advice. Which explains why years later when he wanted to put me on a daily hormone pill, I refused. Just today on the news I learned that I had made a good decision.
Getting off point here, I'll write about drugs later. This story is just about doctors and I had one in Dr. B. This is about what the medical profession has come to. Sure there are the amazing advances we've seen in the past thirty years. People continue to be healed and cured of devastating issues with their health and well being. I applaud the medical profession and their dedication to these advances.
When Dr. B delivered my first child twenty-five years ago it was the beginning of the end of that one special Doctor. Through my pregnancy visits I was seen by several different ones in the practice which was uncomfortable but I know that now it was the beginning of the new norm.
Today, you can possibly have five to ten different doctors because there is not one who can cure all that ails you. You are blessed if any of these doctors can remember you from one visit to the next. I think the "Baby Boomer" generation will be the last to know of the real GP.
I'm not stupid as to think that doctors should go back to making "House Calls". The world is so much bigger than that. My concern is that the medical profession tries to accomplish too much for bigger rewards. Not so much humanely but monetarily.
Right now I have a relative who had a cerebral hemorrhage at aged sixty over fifteen years ago. He has been in a mostly vegetative since. Recently, he has had his foot amputated to get rid of gangrene and they want to do other surgeries. I have to say what is the point to subject him to this other than a doctor wanting to be a hero or to make more money. This man is now 75 years old and there is no way that his quality of life can be improved.
I too think family members can be a little selfish. Let's face it, no one wants to lose a loved one and will go to the ends of the earth to save them from a horrible illness. Who wouldn't go to these measures for a child or anyone under 50?
In a perfect world the sick would not have to suffer and if they chose not to they could opt for a way out. Of course this is only up to God. I, again, am in awe of the medical profession. Just remember you are not Gods. Learn when it is impossible to perform a miracle.
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