Listens and Cares

Dr. Beth Hanlon became my doctor after a years long search for the right physician. I knew she was the one when she listened to me tell of my troublesome symptoms, took me seriously and didn't hurry me out of the room. I don’t like to attribute it to sexism that my former doctors didn’t really listen to me—but I think it might have been. Dr. Beth was my first female primary care doctor. My previous physician left me on a blood pressure medicine for two more years after it started causing serious drug-induced lupus symptoms. When I asked him for the second or third time if my medicine might be causing my hands to hurt, swell and go numb, he became extremely impatient, and raised his voice that he’d already told me no. Later, someone checked in a physicians’s desk reference and found that one in a thousand people had that negative effect with that medicine. He could have checked, but he didn’t care enough. Dr. Hanlon became my new doctor at that point. This was many years ago. She has been more than willing to listen to my concerns and work with me to find solutions, never treating me like a troublesome child. I do so appreciate that.