Saturday, July 9, 2011

We Love Our Lyme Doc

We love our Lyme doc. We just got back from the quarterly trip to see him. It’s a crazy place ... small, modest quarters, full of people ... Ron and Jim the nurses, Kathy the receptionist, Misha and Yvonne the other docs, ... and lots of really really sick people.

But not as sick as they were. In the waiting room are people from Canada, Chicago, Montana, Washington ... some of them had moved there in order to be treated by this doctor. I asked one young woman, who had moved there from Chicago, “Are you getting better?” “5 months ago I couldn’t have carried on a conversation with you” she said.

Then there is Steve, the Lyme doctor. “Kathy!!” he says: “Bring me more sick people!!.” He examines L., asks questions, listens and looks. He revises the treatment plan and looks her in the eye: “You can get better,” he says firmly. “I know you’re not diggin it now ...you have a ways to go, but you will get better.”

We believe him. Please, God, we believe him.

Someday, these people – Steve and Ron and Jim and Misha and Yvonne – will be recognized as the pioneers they are, tenaciously treating a pernicious, misunderstood disease, dismissed and even persecuted by the larger medical community – and literally giving people back their lives. In the meantime, we are grateful.