Family Medicine Activist: "Dear Family Medicine"

#HAWMC Day 6

Dear Family Medicine,

Thank you.  For being there.  When I was a brand new baby in the newborn nursery.  Well, you examined me in my mom's hospital room.  She and Dad were happy.  I was a bit jaundiced (yellow), but never felt so loved.  My mom said she had like, this "love beam" coming out of her heart, all for me.  Dad laughed a lot.  You asked who I looked like.  Grandma answered the question when she first saw me in Mom's arms.  "Oh, he looks just like Aunt Suzi when she was a newborn."  I wasn't happy to hear that when I was older.

Thank you.  For being there.  When I had right foot pain, getting worse every day at school in the third grade.  Finally, Mom brought me in to see you.  You examined my foot, noting that all my toes seemed normal and not tender.  "Let me see your shoes," you said.  "Aha, I think you're going to be better now," you said, as you handed me the tube of chapstick you took from the inside of my right shoe.  Mom laughed.  You smiled.

Thank you.  For being there.  When I got my first stitches.  They were right on top of my head.  I was in my seventh grade football uniform.  Someone jumped on top or me, cutting my head with his helmet.  Oh, you wondered how I could get cut if I had my helmet on.  I remembered how surprised you were, and how you smiled when my mother said, "It was during the pre-game prayer.  Someone jumped on top when they kneeled down."

Thank you.  For being there.