Dad, What is this spot?
Dad, what’s this spot?
When I was a child in the 1980s I would ask my father a family practice doctor about my health. A simple question “Dad what’s this spot?” (pointing to a small cherry haemangioma that I was born with, it looks like a bright red mole on my right forearm). His reply “It’s AIDS”. It was my job to falsify his assertion. Dad, my stomach hurts, “It’s AIDS” he again replied. I tell the junior doctors this story of how I was treated in the face of the public health crisis of that generation. Their replies are usually nervous laughter or comments like “brutal”, “oh no” or “why”.
Gen-X expected nothing, and we were not disappointed. I was taught mostly how to provide value and perhaps earn some money. The expectation to read the magazines, newspapers and books around the house was that I would learn about the world and be informed about how to get HIV and AIDS. The fact that no amount of parenting would stop the current wave of untreatable illnesses; education and awareness were the only way to provide protection. The strategy was effective.
Doctors aren’t supposed to treat their families but he was happy to sew up a leg, or lip at our kitchen table for family or friends. My assumption the second he was not worried was to make it a teaching point. This might be the case or it may have been what he told me years later when I was in medical school to give people the advice they pay for. I work for the public so I tend to be a degree of helpful that does not extend liability. I will even try to skip the emergency department if I can think of a better plan.
When I think about my family I hope the never need an emergency physician. I have more faith in prevention, exercise, a balanced diet and fresh air. For them I focus on balance thinking of ways to challenge their mind, body and spirt.