#HAWMC: Good Samaritan

#HAWMC Day 3.

It is Good Friday. Typhoon #Maysak is about to hit the Philippines. And the blogging prompt for #HAWMC is about random acts of kindness. Have you seen that movie Evan Almighty? God asks Evan to build an ARK to change the world.

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I remember how the Philippines received kindness from the world during typhoon Haiyan. I pray that we won’t need that again or a real ark with Maysak.

In this post, I write about random acts of kindness from my patients.

I was breaking bad news to an elderly woman with thyroid cancer. We had done three sessions of radioactive iodine and two surgeries. Her thyroglobulin level was still elevated, which meant metastases. I was trying to reassure her – the survival rate was still good. Instead, she patted my hand and told me that she was ready to go anytime and that I had done enough. I had done good, she reassured me. What medicine as a science could do was done. That was all that she could ask for from me and it was for God to do the rest. She thanked me profusely. Doctors like me can feel frustrated in situations like these – when we had done everything we could, but it was not enough. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of this scene from the movie, The Help.

Another patient of mine was celebrating her second year of being cancer-free. She came to see me at the clinic for follow-up. At the end of the consultation, she gave me two bags of groceries. It had a few canned goods, bottles of juice and some fruit. She said, I am not rich Doctor. But I would like to give these to you, to show my appreciation and to mark my second year in my second life. I was so touched.

There are only 200+ endocrinologists serving my country of a 100 million people. That is why I often run clinics 6-8 hours straight from after lunch until the evening. A patient I was seeing late in the evening one day had waited for hours to see me. She was a regular patient. She had not set an appointment that day, so she had to wait in the queue. I apologized to her for the long wait. She told me not to worry and handed me a cup of iced tea from the fast food store near my building. I had a snack Doctor, while waiting. Your throat must be dry from talking to all the patients. I know this is sweet (she smiled while pointing at the iced tea) and you are a diabetes doctor, but have a sip.

One act of random kindness at a time. That is how to change the world!