Thankful Thursday - OK it's Saturday but I'm still thankful

GB’s Thankful Thursday this week was about a former GP of his. Effectively, a man who saved his life. I was going to put a long comment on his post and then decided I’d do my own post on the subject.

My elder daughter is a doctor – of whose accomplishments I am suitably proud – but it’s a job I would not have for a big clock (as my Dad used to say). I commented on GB’s blog that I would not like to have to judge whether a patient needed treatment or attention on the basis of a five minute appointment. Especially if, like GB and I, one tends to put on one cheeriest face when out in the world. Fortunately GB is not one to go to the doctor unnecessarily and his doctor was one who took him seriously. I too am fortunate in that respect. So many of my problems have no identifiable source and although tests have proved it’s not just hypochondria it would be very easy for a GP not to take them seriously.

Another thing that would out me off is the possibility of making a mistake. How many of us have gone through our whole careers without making a mistake. I can think of at least two quite important ones I made. One of them could have cost the Council quite a bit of money. But neither of them lost anyone their life or health.

But it’s not just these aspects that would stop me being a doctor. It is the guilt when you do miss something or even think you might have done so. The day our son died he had just seen the GP and she was devastated at the thought that she might have missed something that would have saved his life. (He’d also seen the hospital specialists that very morning and they saw nothing wrong either.) The simple answer is that there was nothing to see. But that didn’t stop our GP from being very upset and guilty.

I’ve got lots of other reasons to be thankful for our wonderful medical profession and cannot praise them too highly. GB’s thankfulness for his GP is echoed here most heartily.