The Kindness of ... Doctors??

My mother is fortunate to have really good doctors. They are not just knowledgeable in their respective fields, but also kind and generous people. We had an experience today with one of her doctors that quite frankly blew me away.

Last night Mom called me and mentioned she was having a problem with her right eye. She said it was all red and quite sore. It even hurt to touch. The soreness went all the way down to her cheek and her face is red and hot. My sister Jozi took her shopping yesterday and Mom said Jozi mentioned it even looked a bit swollen. Wow. That didn't sound good to me.

I called the local walk-in clinic near Mom's house to get advice about whether I needed to bring her in today. They told me that they don't really have the equipment or expertise to deal with an eye problem like that. Considering the swelling they said it really couldn't wait and she should be seen right away. They told me I should call her eye doctor's office and listen to the voice mail prompts. Most eye doctors have a way for you to reach an on-call doctor in case of an emergency. She said if they did not give an option of an on-call doctor that I should take her to the emergency room at the hospital.

So I called Mom's eye doctor's office and sure enough there was an emergency option. The recording gave her doctor's cell number and his home phone number. And in case he didn't call back within 10 minutes there was a third number to call for an on-call doctor. I called Dr. Baxter's cell number first and got him on the phone right away.

When I described Mom's condition to him he asked if 11:30 would work for her to come in to his office. Yes, we could do that but I also explained that I live in Seattle and I had to drive to Olympia so I could bring her to the appointment. When I said that I was hoping he might want to make the appointment a little later in the afternoon and that way she could still go to church as she had planned and so could he. I knew from things I've seen in his office that he is a church-going man.

When the doctor realized that I would have to come down from Seattle to bring Mom to his office he offered to go pick her up at her home in Lacey. WOW! I couldn't believe he was making such a generous offer. He set a time of 2:00 to pick her up. I thanked him profusely and called Mom to let her know he was coming. Even Walter couldn't believe there was such a thing as an eye doctor who makes house calls.

Late this afternoon I got a call from Mom to tell me about Dr. Baxter's visit. He told her that until he saw her he didn't know if he would need the equipment in his office to examine her. Once he did a brief exam in her home he knew he didn't need any extra equipment so he didn't need to take her to his office. As I expected his diagnosis was an eye infection.

Dr. Baxter then took her insurance cards to the nearby Fred Meyer Pharmacy where she always has her prescriptions filled and wrote her 3 prescriptions for medications to take care of her eye. He brought the medications back to her house along with the bill from Fred Meyer which she can pay later.

One reason I like to attend Mom's doctor appointments is to facilitate communication. Her hearing is so bad that she generally does not hear the instructions the doctor gives her. After each visit it is my practice to write out the instructions for her. Since I was not there Dr. Baxter wrote out all the instructions and what to do with each medication.

As I said above I am totally blown away that a doctor would take time out of his day to take such good care of my mother in this way even though he was not required to do so. Thank you Dr. Baxter!!