You and I know I don’t sing the praises of a dr very often, so when I do, it means something. When I was working, I would have friends who wanted to work for the company and I wouldn’t always give them a referral. I would say we could only give so many and I had used them up or something, but the reality was, I don’t give my seal of approval to just anyone. It doesn’t mean anything if you do. I follow the philosophy that I’m the only one with my opinion, make it valuable.
So my past with doctors has been sketchy at best. We know I’m not a big fan of most, though I’ve surrounded myself with a pretty good team lately.
I recently had my gallbladder removed. I was scared to do it, but met with the surgeon anyway to see what he said. First, I researched him. It was a little too convenient to me that his office was in the same group as my GP, but people I talked to, who know the doctors around here all told me he was good. So I made an apt with Dr Trung Nguyen, General Surgeon in Fort Worth.
Here was a man who put me at ease and scared me to death at the same time. I had no idea what to expect, but Dr Nguyen talked me through what my gallbladder did, what it should look like, what mine looked like, and what the dangers of not taking it out when it was staging a coup would be. He showed me pictures and talked to me like I was an intelligent human being; he made me feel like we were a team and together we could fix this. He also has a pretty dry sense of humor which always puts me at ease.
So we set a date and I showed up to the hospital pretty nervous. The nurses made fun of me because I had had brain surgery but was scared of a little ol’ gallbladder surgery. They put my mind at ease though as most of my nurses that morning had gone to Dr Nguyen for their surgeries. This made me feel better because nurses don’t go go bad doctors. They know who to go see.
That day, I learned more about Dr Nguyen, like he teaches math. If you want to impress me, that’s the way to go. I get along well with science and math brained people. We talked about that for a few minutes, then they took me back.
My gallbladder was apparently all packed up and heading for the exit in its own. He told his nurses when he saw it and the blockage I had, “she was just talking to me! She didn’t say she had any pain!” Doug told him he didn’t think I would notice if I was in more pain. Haha I told him at my post op “I told you I’m a badass……”
He also took that little nub off my belly button. The one I’ve had a weird relationship with all my life…. He said he thought it looked bad and may have been precancerous, so he took it off.
Not only was he taking care of my gallbladder, he was keeping an eye out for me. He saw something that looked off, and he took care of it. That speaks volumes. Several days went by, and I had a question so I called up his office. It was after hours so I figured I would get the on call nurse. Nope. I got him. Not a “we will have someone call you back” but an “ok hold the line while we connect you” he answered my questions and fixed the issue I was having right then.
Cut to several weeks later and we get a bill from the hospital that has a mistake on it. I called his office and they took care of it. Not “ok, here’s what you need to do…” But he went to the hospital himself to straighten everything out, then called me to tell me he talked to them. Is this guy for real?
It is so refreshing to see a doctor go above and beyond these days. It’s even better when this doctor is also a damn good doctor, respected by the nursing staff, and liked by everyone up there, and he treats me like a person with a brain. I’m taking a good look at myself to see what he can take out next!