I wanted to continue the saga of the drunken elephant a little further so as to not impugn the integrity of medical specialists without adequately poking fun at my own specialty, Internal Medicine. As you may remember, Dr. George, Dr. Uri, and Dr. Newton learned from their jungle guide that one must step back and observe patients from a wholistic perspective. Let’s read about what occurred while they were walking up the path with their guide…
Dr. Isaacs had grown weary from seeing over 30 patients daily in his suburban primary care practice. Anyone looking at his practice would believe that he had the good life in his back pocket. Patients loved him after years of his care. Although he sometimes needed a few days to respond to phone calls, his answers always reflected great care for his patients. Yet, inside Dr. Isaacs was hurting as the paperwork grew, the reimbursement shrunk, and the hours grew longer. He too had chosen a sabbatical, a trek through not only a physical jungle, but a spiritual and emotional jungle as well.
Dr. Isaacs heard the crash from a distance, but the jungle’s wall of vegetation and the ensuing silence of thinking specialists prevented his prompt arrival on the medical scene. The other doctors were already some distance up the trail. He assumed that he was the first to arrive, but this did not bother him as the primary care physician usually was the first to address a patient’s problems.
For once having no patients waiting and not being behind in the day’s schedule, Dr. Isaacs patiently surveyed the various objective symptoms previously noted by the specialists. He finally sat back and scratched his head to think for a while. The first question that came to mind was “Is this animal insured?” The answer to this question would interact with the next question: “Who would pay for the tests necessary to get at a diagnosis?” If those weren’t clear, even less clear was the answer to another question: “Do I call for a gastroenterologist, a urologist, or a neurologist first?” Finally: “How would he transport such a large and obviously immobile elephant to the specialist’s office?” Regardless, it would likely be too late by the time an appointment could be made, so he sat down against a nearby tree and fell asleep, not waking until after Dr. George, Dr. Uri, and Dr. Newton had been enlightened by their guide’s simple wisdom. Dr. Isaacs had often fallen asleep during specialists deliberations in the past, so this was nothing new.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
