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There's an old adage in medicine (variously paraphrased to meet the needs of the moment): Following graduation from medical school, what do you call the guy at the top of his class, and what do you call the guy at the bottom of his class? You call both of them "doctor." I was frankly surprised when, as a junior in med school, I was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (top 10%); I was appalled when I was handed the Dean's Award upon graduation. I thought there were better candidates...about 99 of them, in fact, in my class of 100. Once I got into practice, I discovered that any notions of hierarchy and privilege were superfluous. I watched extremely bright physicians practice mediocre medicine, and I saw individuals who struggled through the educational process go on to become stellar physicians. As a board-certified Family Physician and ER doctor, I was expected to follow certain rules whenever I treated a patient. In the vernacular of Western medicine, these rules are collectively known as "the standard of care." Unfortunately, this "standard" is dictated by forces that have little to do with wellness or caring. In my daily life as a solo country doc, I was guided by another code altogether: that of the healer and teacher. I spent nearly two decades in the trenches of American health care before my eyes began to fail; most of that time was spent helping my patients understand what was happening to them... and what they could do about it. I learned a lot from the people who streamed through my door every day. I recall my med-school classmates and attendings telling me I was crazy to go into Family Practice. They opined that I could do anything I wanted to do. I just wanted to be a REAL doc, I told them. "But you'll never make any money as an FP, and your life will never be your own." Well, they were right about that, anyway. An autoimmune illness is slowly eroding my ability to see, but the folks with whom I've rubbed shoulders over the years have given me a gift far greater than eyesight: They have endowed me with vision. I've encountered some fascinating voyagers upon this road we travel. Along the way, I've learned a little bit about a lot of things. Over the past couple of years, the "dome" has absorbed a fair amount of stuff about herbalism and nutrition--a couple of topics most of us physicians don't know much about. I've also published a book--just for fun, mind you. It likely won't make it to any shelves near you, but it represents about 20 years' worth of peering through a camera's lens, and it was worth the effort. You can preview it at: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/168984 Oh. If you're so inclined, visit my blog at http://www.naturallyimmunemd.com |
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