Do doctors have the answers to keep us healthy and able to do what we want to do? Is their advice always sound?

 

Sometimes I’ve had to question what a physician told me. But then I met the doctor who provided me with . . .

 

The Best Medical Advice I Ever Received

 

It was a partly cloudy Tuesday in the Bay Area.

I sat in my doctor’s waiting room

And awaited my name to be called

To see him

For my annual physical.

 

I felt pretty good

For a thirty-eight year old man

And anticipated the doctor’s

Positive evaluation—

One that would leave me smiling.

 

He asked me to undress

And sit on the examination table.

He took my blood pressure,

Checked my pulse,

And then my heart.

 

“Everything looks good,” he said.

"Just one more test."

He took a rubber hammer

From his lab coat

And hit my left and then right knee.

 

His smile turned to a frown,

And he commented,

“I don’t like your reflexes.

You will need to see a specialist—

A neurosurgeon I will recommend.”

 

Before he could give me the referral,

I stated, “There is only one such doctor

I will agree to see.

His name is Dr. Carver,

A prominent neurosurgeon in Southern California.”

 

He gulped and blurted,

“He won’t see you!”

“Oh yes he will,”

I responded with confidence,

And asked for a written referral.

 

That afternoon,

I called my sister

And asked her to get me

An appointment

With Dr. Carver.

 

Fifteen minutes later,

My phone rang.

My sister said,

“Can you get a flight

To Los Angeles on Thursday?”

 

Thursday afternoon,

We entered the doctor’s office,

And checked in at the front desk.

Within seconds the doctor

Came into the waiting room.

 

With a glow surrounding him,

He approached my sister,

Put his arms around her,

Hugged and kissed her,

And led me to the examination room.

 

“You must be wondering

Why I did that,” he said.

“Most of my patients,

With a cerebral aneurysm that bursts

On the operating table, are paralyzed or die.”

 

Then he examined me,

Looked at my lumbar spine X-rays,

And gave me

The best medical advice

I ever received.

 

“Surgery is a last resort,”

He stated with conviction.

“When you can no longer reduce the pain

By cutting out the activities

That cause it,

 

“Or when you’ve eliminated

So much

That you have no quality of life,

Then come back

And see me.

 

“I’ll be sixty-seven in June,

And my back surgery

Will allow me

to continue

to ski.”

 

 

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