The
question is: what do we look for, hope for, or expect from our family
doctor? I used to have a fantastic one, Doctor Lee, when I was living in
Hong Kong. He always received me with a sympathetic and warm smile,
that made me immediately feel better already before I even sat down.
Even though he hadn't seen me for months, he had remembered, without
checking my record, what my problem was the previous time, and
solicitously inquired if whatever it was had cleared up totally. By now,
I felt there's perhaps nothing wrong with me this time after all. He
just seemed to have this magic to make you feel safe and well cared for.
To Doctor Lee it's as if there's no illness or disease, just health and how to acquire it. After he established that he was not your doctor and you were not his patient, but friends (at least so seemed to me), he began to talk to you like a friend (see? I was right), listened to you attentively without once checking his watch, and never made me feel I have taken up too much of his time, or had asked too many questions, nor the kind of look some doctors give you (with intention, I suspect), to make you wish to apologise for being alive, or need to thank him for prolonging it.
I had since changed abode several times in as many countries. Never had I come across another doctor I feel half as comfortable with and wholeheartedly trust. Many of them are good and competent doctors, at least according to their credentials which pronounce so in neat frames all over the wall behind the consulting table. But I often feel, in their presence, I am inadequate even as a patient, not able to convey exactly what my sickness is (I usually hope they would tell me) and therefore I should be apologetic, and grateful that he hadn't exactly told me off.
Too many doctors are Doctor House, brilliant, but rude and intolerable. I am glad he is but a fictional character. How I wish there were more Doctor Lee-S.
Current Mood: 
Awake
Awake
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