Jim’s Story Continued

Doctors

On a journey like this you get to meet all kinds of Doctors.   The number would be staggering but it has to be a hundred.  From the time of my first urgent care visit you get everything from the med students, we call  “Dugies,” to one of the most memorable, Dr. Jimmy Stewart, later in the story.

This part of the trip really started with Dr. Steve, my local device doc (stints & pacers).  Although I was lucky enough to land the head of cardiology on my fist MI, I ended up having most of my work done by Dr. Steve.  As I have said,  you have to drive your own boat, so that is what I did.  I picked Dr. Steve as my go-to guy and that is what made this all possible.  He was a prior member of the staff here at St Luke’s and he made the referral.My first visit was a little delayed by a med records mix-up.  That also is another story to come, but  with a happy ending.

So off we go to KC downtown on the Plaza that is the upper class spot of the Midwest.  All the tall buildings, fancy shops and folks selling pies on the street corner was a cultural mix not found in the Ozarks every day.  St. Luke’s is a nice place, with underground entry and a real streamline check-in that even I couldn’t have designed any better.The next few folks were not docs but set the tone for how we were to be treated everyday.  From Derek the tech to Jennifer, these people were involved and committed.This was an education day and not being approved yet, we did not know what to expect, but  it worked.  Our eagerness and the records delay seemed to help get us a jump start and we scheduled to come back in just a few days to be incarcerated for the “Eval”.  We were told what to expect and here is where the white coat parade started.  I guess I was a little sicker than everyone thought so a three day tour turned into a seven day hospital stay.  I saw not only one doc for a test, I saw a team of docs for every test.  It seemed most were of mid-Eastern heritage, with a splash of everything except old fat white guys like all country kids grew up with, and then He walked in.  Dr. Jimmy strolled in and sat down and said I am by myself but I am one of the surgeons you will never see.  My comment was “I just thought you were the token white guy,” and he turned kinda red and ducked his head and smirked.  And yes, I have never seen him again, but he was very memorable and just the country doc everyone loved in the big city. As the eval continued, we had skin docs, cancer docs, blood docs and some that I had no idea what they were nor could I understand what they were saying. There was one common theme, they were there for one thing and that was to get me a new heart and they wanted to make dang sure when I got it, that it was getting a good home.  We passed.

I do want to add one thing and that is, some folks sometimes make comments about attitudes of these professionals.  I have heard and met some like Napoleon syndrome and God complex.  The last is one I have thought about a lot.  I don’t think it is that they have a complex but they have to be just a little smarter to figure out just how complex our God really is.  I hope the only extra part they ended up with after me was the old one.  Try fixing your old toaster for a starter and them maybe you’ll get an idea of what it would be like to stick your hands into another persons body.

Thanks guys and girls! But a special thanks to the cutest creature on the planet, Dr. B.  Ware that little red ribbon every once and a while.

Jim’s Story – (Continued, Part 3)