How can I find a doctor like Maria?
One of the problems of getting old is that our doctors tend to get older with us. We know that having a good family doc is the best way to stay healthy and age well, but what will happen to me when my wonderful physician finally retires?
I am going to visit her today with the agenda of starting a GLP-1. This is an idea that terrifies me. Having spent years vomiting with my gastric band (see The fat lady speaks), I have resisted the siren call of Ozempic for a long time. Now, however, my sugars are not well controlled despite my best efforts. My daughter Emma, who among her many talents is someone who works with the “Choosing Wisely” consortium, has given me a stern talking to about how I need to do this for my kidneys and cardiovascular health.
So, I will visit Maria in her tiny office at CLSC Outremont. She will be her usual self, wise, kind, with a dry sense of humour and her very Montreal Italian mannerisms. We will discuss my ideas, my hopes, what I expect from this visit. She will be the mistress of FIFEing, in the most natural way possible. She will ask me how Dave is doing, just as she asks him about me, storing up our perspectives for her encounter with the other one. I will ask her about her life, her travels, send regards to her father, even though he does not know me.
She has been my doctor for over 30 years. Luckily, she is younger than I am. She keeps reassuring me that she has no intention of retiring any time soon, but I can’t help but worry that someday the lure of freedom and travel and no longer needing to struggle with the craziness of the healthcare system will seduce her. If she retires, what will I do?
Maria has so much embedded knowledge of my medical history, what I have lived through, suffered and triumphed over. I don’t want a modern, team approach, evidence-based, AI-enabled baby doctor—but that’s what I am going to get because getting someone older makes no sense. Perhaps we can grow to develop a trusting relationship over time, despite the current craziness of the healthcare system that values quantity over the quality of care that truly heals.
So, I will enjoy Maria’s care while I still can. We will laugh, and I will cry. I will criticize how she takes my blood pressure, and she will make sure that it is well controlled. She will take my calls, even when she is not at work. She will remind me to do my screening and tell me that I am doing too much for my family. I will say that she is “the pot calling the kettle black.”
She will be my family doctor.