Life has been revolving around being either in healthy or sick state while being in alternating condition. The one person who could put the wrong to right was our Family Doctor. He was known as ‘Mama’ or Uncle in our family.
Over the period of time, I have seen so many things happen to me health-wise and yet every visit to his clinic was filled with hope.
Family Doctors are those breed of physicians who are responsible for the well-being and health of the entire family. They know and have a complete knowledge of all the members of the family.
Our Family Doctor is such a wonderful person who knows us by our name, personality, and attitude towards sickness.
He always treated the emotional response to sickness along with the actual sickness. He is known to the entire extended family and everyone. I felt he was part of the family not just a doctor prescribing medicine. He would join us at any function which happened in our house. He was the most respected elder in our house.
My Family Doctor is an interesting person and has been looking after our health needs from my grandmother’s time. For all that you know, it took him just five minutes to figure the exact aliment and the medicines needed for it, while the rest of the time was spent in “gub shup” or small talks.
When I visit him, he would have the radio on which always softly played the Carnatic music channel. His mother was good Veena player and had passed on her interest to him. Those few minutes in his presence where so important for positive feeling.
He would cuts jokes about sickness and discomfiture, which brought smiles in the lips of his patients belonging to any age group. Our Family Doctor is exceptional because he recognized the patient’s need to address the humor factor in a situation when the person is unwell.
I believe, if I had a life threatening sickness, even then, I would still be laughing at something his quirky humor picked about my attitude towards the sickness.
Sometimes it was such a pleasure to just visit him for no apparent reasons. Those ten or fifteen minutes in his company were such pleasure giving moments that it would put the life itself right.
I had the pleasure of meeting different doctors in my life path of ailments. To a certain extent I have seen a spectrum of doctors. Surgeons, Specialist, Consultant but though they were all well-versed in their fields, I would still need my Family Doctor to give a once over on the issue and provide his quirky humorous joke on the situation.
Sometimes he would just look at the reports and start an entirely different conversation topic. I would get distracted and be happy to just converse in forgetfulness of the big worded ailments.
Even though Doctor Mama as we call him is no longer practicing now, I would make an effort go see him on rare occasions. Just for the conversation and his views of all thing small and great.
These days Family Doctors are rare breed now. The doctors don’t have the time to calm down the patients who are so freaked out about their health condition. Doctor’s heal now by just looking at the reports to prescribe medicine and then you leave feeling worse than ever. Since none of the present day doctors have the time to check out your emotional needs towards the ailment.
Sometimes even the long wait used to be a pleasure for me at my Family Doctor’s home clinic. There was such pleasure to even sit with him as he made the checkup feel like playing doctor-doctor.
He would never let me feel that the ailment that was been treated should be given too much seriousness. That gentleness of spirit and humor of treating the ailment’s psychological presence makes him the best doctor in my experience of different doctors that I met in the course of my life.
He made the short duration that he gave me, as if I was with a long lost friend who was happy to see me again. I believe when one is sick it is not so much about the ailment as it is about the psychological attitude towards the ailment.
As an individual apart from his profession my Family Doctor was such a noble person. He had faced a lot of challenges in life and still had the positive vibes to share with his patients.
As a professional he has exemplary bedside manners and very practical approach to all life situations. I felt as if the entire experience of ailment discomfiture lift and leave me to feel light with happiness.
But so far I love all my doctors that I visited don’t know if it was luck. But among them all my favorites will still be my Family Doctor. Because he taught me to never get overwhelmed with ailment’s seriousness.
He taught me how to look at ailments in the real sense and keep an upbeat attitude towards curing it. I am grateful for those lessons and life experiences with him.
I still go see him when I can and I feel I am the healthiest person in the world immediately. Sometimes we talk about all the topics under the sun. My Family Doctor will always be a healer with a human touch whom I respect.
Itinerant Storyteller 