When you care about what you do

I had a great encounter this weekend as I was attending a dinner in the community.  It was one of those conversations where you walk away and continue to ponder the discussions that took place. I'll get to the rest of the reason for this blog once I give the background info on where I'm going with this 'caring' thing.

I had taken care of a family a few months ago who was going to be doing some travel and needed some medications to take with them.  Because I have done some international travel myself, I was familiar with the challenges and processes to get things in order before flying the friendly skies.  I've seen people become ill while away from home throughout my years and let me tell you it is not a pretty sight.

Anyway, the entire family needed medicine and maybe because of my experiences they called me to bridge the gap.  I went to work on all the details for them which included coordinating insurance, making a compounded formulation for their youngest, and discussing the how-to's of administration.  I think the angel on my shoulder gave me insight into some of the necessities that others might not think about including clean water, stability, and storage once they arrived.  We came up with a good game plan and everyone stayed healthy.  Woo-hoo!

The conversation included the words, "we are going to transfer our business to you because of how well you took care of us."  I very graciously thanked her for her kind words but felt inside that I was only doing what was right to cover the details for their health and welfare.    It was sort of humbling to hear those words.  This has been happening more and more in our community.  We have seen a tremendous amount of converts into our business over the past few years.  I'm very happy to have another family come on board and I'm certainly thankful that I got the call to intervene.  It was a win-win for all of us.  Keep 'em coming!

I began to think about our business and what I get to do everyday.  We are a unique provider in our community in that we can provide traditional medicine options, but we can also customize therapy to individual needs.  There is absolutely no way to predict my day.  Maybe a young woman needs help sustaining a pregnancy.  Maybe a cat has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.  Maybe a child needs something flavored so they will take their medicine.  Maybe a menopausal woman needs an evaluation of hormones to determine if life can return to normal again for her.  Each person (patient, provider, caretaker) that comes in or calls has a particular need that they are concerned about..   In any given day, I can respond to 20 email, Facebook, or texts messages from those in my contact circle.  Most often, it's just a 'Dr. Sonja, what do you think about this?'   Our team is placed in a unique position to be able to help with needs of many kinds.  The drug shortages have opened up deep concerns for patients who need special medicines to control their disease.  We have intervened in some of those areas recently and I'm so happy that we could.  Bottom line, if we lose the focus of care and concern and our 'response-ability' to help with these concerns, then we are 'in it' for the wrong reasons.  This whole encounter reassured me that our team is 'in it' for all the right reasons.  We have an excellent team (over 120 years of experience combined-smile) and reputation in our community and it's encouraging to be here to serve.

We care,
Dr. Sonja