Doc Miller (s)

This last week, Sara, Megan and I have spent time at the University of Iowa Hospitals. Quite a bit of that time has been spent with Dr. Miller, Megan's orthopedic surgeon.  He is, without a doubt, a gifted physician and surgeon. He is also someone we have been fortunate to know and the Midwest is lucky to have him.

Interestingly enough though, I began thinking about some of the doctors I've had in my life and it almost speaks to the way that the profession has changed.  One of the first doctors that I remember is "old" Doc Miller.  When I was a child and doctors still made house calls, this man was the one who came when we were sick.  He was, by my reckoning, older than the hills.  But this wasn't the thing that amazed me.  Dr Miller was a pipe smoker and the first thing he did on coming into my room for an examination was to put his pipe in his pocket, STILL LIT.  I know that during the exam he poked and prodded and asked questions, but the truth is that I couldn't quit thinking about that pipe.  When was he going to explode into flames?  I just could not even imagine how you would put fire in your pocket and have it be okay.  Every single time he did this, he completed the exam, made whatever pronouncements that he needed to make, reclaimed his pipe and left the house without incident.  I remember thinking that this just couldn't be possible.  But it was, time and time again.  Interesting for this to be one of my first memories of the medical profession.

Then came Dr Rodowieg in Spirit Lake, Ia.  We used to spend the month of June in the Iowa Great Lakes area.  Each summer, Dr Rodowieg would do our annual physicals making sure that we were healthy. Although he was a multiple pack-a-day smoker, he told his patients that smoking wasn't good for them.  In 1969, we were at the lake when the Food and Drug Administration banned the artificial sweetener Cyclamate from use in foods and most importantly, diet pop.  The news quickly filled with the fact that lab rats subjected to Cyclamate developed cancerous tumors and died.  Mom was, of course, beside herself.  We immediately went to see Dr Rodowieg, who calmly explained that the rats had ingested the equivalent of 350 cans of diet pop a day.  When mom logically asked the doctor what she should do to protect the health of her family, Dr Rodowieg calmly explained to her that he was buying up every case of the product he could find at bargain basement prices as everyone tried to get rid of it.

Next in the line worth remembering was Dr Gann.  He was a lifelong friend of the family and he always worked to take really good care of us.  Again, it was a different time.  One summer to help me lose weight, because yes, this has been an issue my whole life, he prescribed amphetamines.  Well, the weight fell off, but I spent the whole summer not only weak from losing all of the weight, but really owly since I was only sleeping a few hours a night.  But this isn't the thing that I remember best about Dr Gann.  That would be Eleanor.  I know, without a doubt, that she put a hook on the end of every syringe she used.  I've never had anyone give me a shot that hurt like that.  And, mom was a big believer in flu shots, so once a year, in we went.  Jaye and I would nearly come to blows over who had to go first.  Anything that you could do to put off the inevitable, even for a few moments was worth the effort.  I know that we were receiving good care, but damn it hurt.

This really only gets me up through the 80s, but as I think about it, those were the physicians that to me were the biggest "characters." One thing they had going for every one of us was that they knew us for a long period of our lives, and they were responsible for the totality of our health care.

Nowadays, no matter what you do in the health care area, there is a team to care for you.  Some of these people you will know, and some will be far behind the scene running tests and providing information.  On occasion though, you still find someone that is more like Doc Miller, or Ed Gann, or Dr Rodowieg.  You find someone that has all of the technical expertise and all of the science that is medicine today, and on top of that, they get to know the patient as a person and they really care about them.

The "new" Dr. Miller at the University of Iowa is one of those people. He is a brilliant technical doctor and a very compassionate human being.  I am thankful that we were fortunate enough to meet him at a time that we really needed him.

Take a moment and think back through some of the doctors you have had over the years.  Do you have stories?  Are you willing to share?