Lovely Man

Those words best describe my doctor, Dr. Dunlop. He is truly a lovely man, which means he is understanding, respectful, sweet and kind. His brilliance and sense of humor are understated as he is also modest and somewhat shy.
I feel I have watched him grow as a doctor as I have watched my own son grow as a person. He was just starting his practice here when I first met him! Now I have grown older and he has grown into the kind of doctor that everyone wishes for, the kind that folks think no longer exists.
Also, I used to wonder if he purposely surrounds himself with staff that possess that same kind of goodness that he embodies or if it has been coincidence. But now I know that integrity and graciousness draw more of the same as his staff is warm and compassionate, as he is. And it is obvious how much they care for him.
Dr. Dunlop is all of this and more but as I think of all of the best moments, the ones that have made a difference, they mostly are about the doctor/patient relationship that he has created. It is nothing like other doctors I see or hear of where the doctor asks a few questions and hands down a diagnosis with little information about the patient as a person. Dr. D gets to know us as whole human beings, what our lives are like, what matters to us and he listens to how we want to proceed with treatment, medications, etc. In this way he has created a give and take that feels authentic. In the end I feel that he can make a good diagnosis or treatment plan that has the best chance of working because he has looked at a bigger picture. His own intuition is wonderful and I rely on that quite a bit.
It is too hard to find one moment that exemplifies all that I have said, but one moment that happened recently stands out. I was having a difficult time with my illness and I wanted him to help me find a way to get to New York to see our son. Naturally he understood how important this was to me and gave me several options and a lot of support. I was crying because I was afraid of not being to go and as I was leaving, I turned around and spontaneously reached out to him for a hug. In that moment I started to think "oh no, you can't go around hugging doctors" but my whole being knew that he is not just a guy who prescribes meds and treatment plans, but a lovely man filled with empathy and understanding as well. With no hesitation, he hugged me for a moment and in that moment, I felt comforted enough to know that I would be able to make that trip.