Gratitude is so very important to your career as a physician.
Our gratitude for the skill and abilities to make a difference for a patients.
And our patient's gratitude for us when we've made a difference in their lives.
That inbound thank you from a patient is always met with a wave of reciprocal gratitude coming from our heart back in their direction.
A simple thank you from a staff member or colleague, and especially from a patient or family member, can go a very long way in easing the burden of the daily grind. Oftentimes this comes in a verbal thank you. And often times were too busy to soak it in, which is why recreated the what-to-do-when-a-patient-says-thank-you training.
Every once in awhile somebody goes out of the ordinary, writes you a note or sends you an email. You can save that precious text for when you need it most. Pull it out, sit down after the shift is done and take your time reading it over and over, smiling, sometimes crying, always so grateful.
For those times when a patient or family member puts their thank you down in words, I recommend you keep or print out those messages of gratitude and support in a special box. Let's call it a Gratitude Box [G.Box].
Keep it close at hand.
So when you're having a tough shift, day, week or rotation you can open the box and sift through these memories of times you made a real difference and reconnect with your Lightworker essence.
And sometimes you will find gratitude has a very long tail.
It's often hard to tell when a thoughtful act or a kind word in the middle of a busy shift made a difference in the fabric of the life of one of our patients
I got this email from one of my patients last week, out of the blue.
I had treated them in a very unusual case as a resident back over 30 years ago. He accidentally bumped into me online and it triggered this reflection he typed into the message. I have printed it off and will keep it inside the slipcover of my personal journal - forever.
Please, feel free to type a note from your gratitude box into the comment section at the bottom of this post - so we can all bask in the reflection of your Light.
If you don't have a gratitude box, I hope this spurs you to start one so that you can have this ability to read your thank yous and boost your spirits when you need it most.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's that email:
Hello Dr. Drummond,
You may not remember me, but I surely remember you.
You were my family doctor as a young man in Mount Vernon. You not only tended to every ailment I had in my sports career, but also managed to keep my spirits up as I spent those years doing what I could to keep my father happy.
You always had a good story to tell to keep me seeking my next accomplishment. Between my career ending double ankle sprain in 1992 coming down from a rebound in our state championship game, to the day they pulled my wisdom teeth out in 1993 and I learned I was a hemophiliac, that was the year that changed my life.
I don't remember much of my near death losing 2/3 of my blood, but I remember you being by my side through much of it. I specifically remember a conversation you had in my room at the hospital when I was in and out of consciousness, my father complaining about the cost of the treatment of the Factor 9 needed to save my life.
I could see the look on your face as you reminded him who I was to him, and the hemphilia clinic in Seattle would be there to help. It was that day I found out how my father felt about my life, and it never changed. I was on my own.
Mom passed the year you left the clinic, by that time I had gone down a road of depression, unrealized dreams, and now my anchor gone and left with a father who was never there. I only got to see you a few more times after my bleed out, and searched for you after mom passed but never found you. I wanted to tell you thank you for everything you did for me and mom.
My path may had changed and sports wasn't in my future anymore, but your words and caring changed me so much. As years went by, I always thought of you as my hemophilia B diagnosis was revealed in full scope to me. My family history, a great uncle who literally died falling off a turnip truck lol.
My condition is so rare as of today I'm the only Washingtonian left with hemophilia b. Each time I have bleeding incidents I get to teach new doctors who have never dealt with hemophilia how to treat me. The clinic in Seattle gives me first class service with my factor nine coming in helicopters lol. They direct all my doctors in the emergency rooms how serious each treatment is.
I always think of you when they treat me, and wonder if my rare condition may have made your job more fulfilling. The things I learn that we could have learned together. It doesn't surprise me that you are teaching Dr's. how to decompress. Your nature has always been so calm I often thought psychology would have suited you great lol.
Anyways Dr Drummond, I just wanted to say thank you for being you, and I know Skagit was hard, they still are, but just know I'm not the only patient you had that will never forget you and how you changed our lives, even helped keep us alive. I hope you continue your path and help others, they need you as much as we did.J. G.
~~~~~~~~~~~
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with one of your gratitude notes or a story of when your G.BOX saved your bacon.