Sometimes it's about actual networking.
As you may or may not know, I now work in a pain management clinic. We manage chronic pain, both with interventional injections and with medications. I'm pretty much on the medication side. Because it's a specialty clinic, we have more time to spend with our patients than I did as a family doctor. I find this a bit disheartening for the state of primary care in the US. There is no time to develop relationships, to actually get to know and understand the patient's outside influences on his health. Granted, it might not be as important for a runny nose or allergy season, but it's profoundly important when treating a patient's pain.
Anyway, I have a patient I've been seeing for about a year with his atypical face pain. He's had his ups and downs and he's a patient who doesn't really do well to cover up when he's feeling down or blue. Last month, when he came for his medication appointment, he was down and I asked him why that was. He said he'd been trying to get into touch with a buddy of his from his Marine Corps days and he was having problems finding his friend. They served overseas together in Japan, and he know that his friend lived in the area. This is not uncommon in North Carolina, plenty of Marines from 2MEF that were stationed in Jacksonville, NC, wind up retiring down here. With Jacksonville's Marine Corps base and Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, I've spent the last 10 years treating a number of military and their families.
Anyway, Mr Smith, as we'll call him, told me it was making him feel down that he couldn't find his friend who had an unusual name. When he told me the name, I asked to confirm the friend's first name and asked if he had an Asian wife. Indeed it was the same person I had seen as a patient for about 4 years in Angier, NC.
I didn't know how to get in touch with his friend, my former patient, but I knew someone who still worked for my former employer and so I called her that night. I hadn't spoken to her in over a year. We caught up on our families, our lives, and then she told me she would try to find some information and call me back. I had not heard from her in several weeks, so I assumed she had not found anything.
Today, at my office, I got a call from my former patient. He told me how he was doing, that he was planning on moving up to Washington, DC, in August to a veterans retirement village and that he's doing well. He and his wife are now divorced, unfortunately, but still friends and remain in the area. He confirmed that he did, indeed, know my current patient, and I passed on the phone number.
About an hour or 2 ago, I got an email from my former patient. He had his friend, my current patient, had been able to connect on the phone and spent some time catching up. He thanked me for following up, and thanked me again for being his doctor at least for a while.
It just reminded me that a network is not about facebook or blog updates. It's not about screaming on the internet about what you think and feel. It isn't about sitting at a computer, looking at pictures. While it has been a great bit of fun to reconnect with people from another time in my life, my real network is more grounded, less wired, less web enabled.
My network is about real connections, being part of people's lives, even in small ways. It's about paying attention sometimes.
I love facebook and blogs. I'll keep using the internet to kill monsters, read news stories, find charitable actions, and rage against injustices and bad grammar. But I am so much more richly rewarded having been able to speak to that former patient, to put him in contact with his old friend. The initial impact we have on one another maybe small at first, but the ripple of energy from that impact can become enormous. And that gives me great joy.
Anyway, I have a patient I've been seeing for about a year with his atypical face pain. He's had his ups and downs and he's a patient who doesn't really do well to cover up when he's feeling down or blue. Last month, when he came for his medication appointment, he was down and I asked him why that was. He said he'd been trying to get into touch with a buddy of his from his Marine Corps days and he was having problems finding his friend. They served overseas together in Japan, and he know that his friend lived in the area. This is not uncommon in North Carolina, plenty of Marines from 2MEF that were stationed in Jacksonville, NC, wind up retiring down here. With Jacksonville's Marine Corps base and Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, I've spent the last 10 years treating a number of military and their families.
Anyway, Mr Smith, as we'll call him, told me it was making him feel down that he couldn't find his friend who had an unusual name. When he told me the name, I asked to confirm the friend's first name and asked if he had an Asian wife. Indeed it was the same person I had seen as a patient for about 4 years in Angier, NC.
I didn't know how to get in touch with his friend, my former patient, but I knew someone who still worked for my former employer and so I called her that night. I hadn't spoken to her in over a year. We caught up on our families, our lives, and then she told me she would try to find some information and call me back. I had not heard from her in several weeks, so I assumed she had not found anything.
Today, at my office, I got a call from my former patient. He told me how he was doing, that he was planning on moving up to Washington, DC, in August to a veterans retirement village and that he's doing well. He and his wife are now divorced, unfortunately, but still friends and remain in the area. He confirmed that he did, indeed, know my current patient, and I passed on the phone number.
About an hour or 2 ago, I got an email from my former patient. He had his friend, my current patient, had been able to connect on the phone and spent some time catching up. He thanked me for following up, and thanked me again for being his doctor at least for a while.
It just reminded me that a network is not about facebook or blog updates. It's not about screaming on the internet about what you think and feel. It isn't about sitting at a computer, looking at pictures. While it has been a great bit of fun to reconnect with people from another time in my life, my real network is more grounded, less wired, less web enabled.
My network is about real connections, being part of people's lives, even in small ways. It's about paying attention sometimes.
I love facebook and blogs. I'll keep using the internet to kill monsters, read news stories, find charitable actions, and rage against injustices and bad grammar. But I am so much more richly rewarded having been able to speak to that former patient, to put him in contact with his old friend. The initial impact we have on one another maybe small at first, but the ripple of energy from that impact can become enormous. And that gives me great joy.