-: I feel blessed to be able to do this,
because what I do is I sit here with a person
and I get to talk about their lives.
I mean, like what other job can you do
where you sit there, you talk to somebody about,
"So, how's your kids doing, how are your grandkids doing?
You went on this trip the other week,
how was your trip to Europe?"
And so on, you sit there and you talk to them,
and it's part of the job and it's like,
I'm just kinda shooting the breeze with somebody,
almost like a close friend, and this is part of my job, too.
I'm thinking, "I'm getting paid for this,
just to sit and talk to somebody."
And then you start talking about,
"Okay, well, let's try this and let's do this
and let's do this to make your feel better."
and you see them back again in a week or two
or month or two or year or two and say,
"Yeah, that pain I had or that issue I had before,
I feel so much better now, thank you so much for that."
It makes me feel like I really changed this person's life,
even though I had that 10, 15 minute conversation
about just daily life, you get a lot out of that
and you start diagnosing things, start learning about them,
and I feel like I can really help them
and change their lives.
I think the best part for me is
getting to know these people on a more intimate basis.
And it can get a little emotional for me sometimes,
because I know we get kind of drawn
to these patients sometimes, especially emotionally.
There's the ones that I've had for a long time
and if I see something bad happen to them
or I hear something bad happened to their kids
or their grandkids or something in their lives,
I feel really attached and so, it's a good and bad thing.
I feel like I'm part of their lives, too,
and at the same time, I have to
kind of detach myself sometimes also and say,
"Look, I can't get that involved."
Otherwise it'll be like 1000 patients I feel so close to
and my mind's getting pulled so many ways,
but I think I feel fortunate.
I think as doctors, whether it's
primary care or the specialties,
I think we're fortunate that we get that glimpse
into a person's life that not too many
people get in their lives here.