I’m in love with my doctor.

I realized it this afternoon, when having just returned from a quarterly visit; I opened my email to find three messages from his office, all with attachments outlining the new course of treatment he has assigned me.

It’s not that I didn’t know the emails were coming – handouts detailing medication, research, etc. are part of his practice – it’s that the whole experience with this doctor is so affirming.

I started seeing Dr. B last April, mostly as a last resort since traditional medicine really doesn’t have treatment protocols for ME/CFS in Canada.  Dr B is both an MD and a practitioner of alternative medicine – which he calls Functional Medicine.  (For more information, click here.)

A typical appointment lasts between thirty to sixty minutes.  During that time, Dr B, listens to my concerns and answers whatever questions I might have as well as reviewing and deciding on the next course of action.  Today, along with his nurse, we celebrated progress, and then planned the next steps.

I was able to stop three of the meds, and he added two new ones.

“When you read the applications for this one,” he said indicating the bottle, “you’ll understand why I am recommending it.”

Patiently, he wrote down instructions for me and answered my questions.

Eagerly, I opened his message when I returned home and read the accompanying material for the formula he prescribed, and that is when I felt the gush of warmth wash over me.  There, in black and white, he outlined many of the symptoms that I have been experiencing and yet, have not always been able to articulate.

In that moment, I knew he gets me.

“I’m in love with my Doctor,”  I told my husband.

“Are you telling me to get out of the way?” he asked, startled.

“Of course not!”  I said (maybe a little hesitatingly) “It’s just so refreshing to be heard by someone in the medical field.”

Hubby couldn’t help but agree.  ME/CFS, while it affects thousands of people, is a little known disease, and commonly misunderstood.  Ric has accompanied me to the emergency ward many times where I’ve been told there is nothing wrong with me.  He has shared my frustration when doctors have told me there is nothing they can do.

Dr B is not one of those professionals.  I get the feeling that if he didn’t know the answer to something, he’d be just the type to make it a personal research project.  His caring is genuine, and that, from a patient’s perspective, is worth the price of treatment.