I Feel Old

I visited my second set of parents last night, our dear friends PW and Dr. Joe.  They are some of the coolest people you'll ever meet.  They always have peel-and-eat shrimp for me whenever I visit - and not the small ones, either; they pull out all of the stops for Puddin and serve jumbo shrimp.  While we were partying last night, PW mentioned she hadn't been feeling well this spring, and she was going to have some tests to make sure everything is ok.  Dr. Joe is an ENT specialist, and PW asked if he'd heard of a group of female internists that was recommended to her.  Dr Joe pulled out his trusty physician's registry and looked them up.  This registry was huge, and reminded me of a yearbook from school - every M.D. in Jefferson county was listed there, along with their picture.  He looked up the first doctor on PW's list, and slid the book across the table and showed her picture to me. It looked like it was this her junior high school picture. I felt very old.  I told PW "You can't see her - she's too young.  We need to find you one that looks like they have experience." Yes, I realize that was a prejudiced statement, but I was being sarcasting and funny, folks. I wasn't serious.  But half of the doctors in the registry were younger than me.  I'm 42, and while I realize I'm not a young thang any more, I'm far from being over-the-hill.  Needless to say, the other internists in that group looked as young as the doctor in the first picture.  I looked through the whole registry from cover to cover, and Before anyone leaves me hateful comments about this, let me go on record and say that I know that their age has nothing to do with their capabilities, and this group of internists did come highly recommended.  So I'm sure they are all very good doctors, and I would have no qualms about being treated by them.  The general practioner I see is younger than me, and I think Dr. Mehta rocks.  When she diagnosed and treated me for pneumonia a couple of years ago, she took the time to call me at home a few times to see how I was feeling; she didn't have a nurse call, she called herself.  That impressed me.

On my way home last night, I thought more about this and realized this must have been how my Grandma and Grandpa felt the first time they saw our family physician Dr. Ambach.  At the time they started seeing Dr. Ambach, they were in their 50's while Dr. Ambach was in his 30's.  I'm sure they thought the same thing - "He's too young to be a doctor."  To our family, Dr. Ambach was the best family physician that ever walked the face of the earth.  He treated my parents, grandparents, and even delivered me.  He was honest, and didn't pull any punches nor sugarcoat things, and he genuinely cared about all of us, just as I'm sure the younger generation of doctors do.  If I were a doctor, I know I would pattern myself after Dr. Ambach.  I hope that they all will look back on their childhoods and are able to find great mentors to pattern themselves after.