Adding to the Team

My medical team has gotten larger. Dr. Ram is a GI specialist and was gracious enough to add me to his already busy schedule quickly.

We arrived at his offices early, and 20 minutes before my appointment a young man came down the hallway and called a patient name. "I am Dr. XXXXX and I am working with Dr. Ram today. Please come this way." About 3 minutes later another young man came down the hallway and called a patient name. "I am Dr. YYYYY and I am a medical student working with Dr. Ram today. Please come this way." Five minutes past before another young man came down the hallway, called a patient name, and sure enough.... "I am Dr. ZZZZ and I am working with Dr. Ram today. Please come this way." At 8:20 a young man came down the hallway and called me. "My name is Dr. Shash and I am working with Dr. Ram. Let's go this way."

Dr. Ram had at least FOUR residents/students working with him. That defines busy!

With a slight hesitation, I followed this young resident down the hallway into an examination room. Dr. Shash was not like the last two residents I have tolerated. He was soft spoken, asked lots of questions and then [gasp!] actually listened to the answers. But he sold me when he looked at me earnestly and asked "I don't know much about radiation. Can you tell me about this?" Aha! A resident who knew what he doesn't know! Eureka! At the end of the questions and physical examination, he outlined all the horrid things that could be wrong with me, and all of the invasive procedures that they could order. But then he smiled and said "But, I really don't think we are looking at any of that." He then sent me back to the waiting room to wait for Dr. Ram. It didn't take long, and this time Leslie came down with me.

Since this is a teaching hospital, teaching does happen. In this case, Dr. Ram had Dr. Shash present my case to him while I was there. I was encouraged to interrupt if I thought any of the information was not accurate. Dr. Ram then poked around my stomach. "This is the lower quadrant," he told Dr. Shash. Dr. Shash made lots of notes on his pad.

Dr. Ram went through a long list of things that are not wrong. Liver function is good, white blood counts are healthy, no obstructions, no obvious infections. He looked me in the eyes and said "Clearly you have been through a lot in the last few months. I don't want to do anything invasive that isn't necessary especially since I am not really sure there is anything truly wrong. I suspect that the lining of your intestines has been damaged by your chemo." "But," he continued "I should do a colonoscopy to rule out some other possible causes."

Oh yea! So that is where I will be on Tuesday morning following three days of preparation which includes drinking some nasty mixtures.

Dr. Ram hopes that these episodes were just random, and that they will never return. However, he wants to understand why part of my belly is still distended, and if possible, find the cause of these horrid and painful evenings. If the colonoscopy results are negative, he would take the 'wait and see' approach.

I really liked Dr. Ram. I was prepared for a distracted doctor who was rushed. Instead he was engaged, warm, and totally in the room. He was practical and didn't stretch to find the unusual. He was patient and kind to his resident, while still being firm. Another quality doctor is now on the Tucker-Team.