What’s Up Doc? Another Sign of Aging

I just discovered another sign of aging – all your doctors start to retire.

I always think of a doctor as being an older statesman, or woman, and, I, a younger, dewy-eyed patient. This has been the dynamic of most of my doctor-patient relationships since I was a child and, up until now, I never gave any real thought about the fact that because my doctors were older than me, that I would one day have to find a replacement. Well, that day has come; and, alas, I am no longer so young nor dewy-eyed.

Your Doctor’s Career Parallels Your Own Life Cycle

It really got me thinking about my journey and life’s progression. I have been a patient of some of my doctors since I first moved to New York in 1983. These physicians have treated me for everything from mono to post-partem depression. I never really thought about how a doctor’s career parallels my own life cycle, but it clearly does.

Family Doctor

My very first family doctor, the one who treated me for mono at age 21, knew that I was a struggling dancer, so he didn’t charge me for the visit.

Ophthalmologist

At 25, the television was getting fuzzy to watch, so I went to get my first pair of glasses. At the time, I was one of the first patients of a young ophthalmologist who just opened his own practice. I remember sitting, waiting for my eyes to dilate, and I watched him proudly showing his new office to a family member. That office and his practice has since been sold.

Gynecologist

My gynecologist knew me as a single girl and then a married woman. She helped me navigate a miscarriage in my 30s and fertility issues when I was in my 40s. She is now in her 70s and winding down her practice.

All Other Doctors

As I got older, there has been high cholesterol, weight gain, vitamin D deficiency, cataracts – common conditions as one matures and, as I aged, so did my physicians. I saw them in the prime of their careers and they saw me grow into middle age.

Even These Relationships Take Time

It has taken years for these doctors and I to bond, to understand (and remember) underlying issues. Medicine was practiced differently 40 years ago. In the past, doctors used to make house calls and spend significant time with each patient. Now, with HMO quotas, you get 15 minutes with a doctor at best.

These days, when my “new” General Practitioner enters the examining room, I know he has no clue as to who I am. He goes into the electronic files which tells him how high my cholesterol and A1C is. The charts also show my blood pressure and other vitals for the past 30 years as well as the medications I take.

What these records don’t tell him is how I struggled to get pregnant, how scared I am that I may die young just like my mother, or how difficult it is for me to not have the stamina nor strength to be able to dance like I used to.

Just Another Aging Milestone

As I embark on this new chapter, I decided to handle finding new doctors as just another aging milestone. It isn’t fun, but I’m grateful to still be on the hunt. The reality is, my new doctors will most likely outlive me. I am becoming their patient as they begin to build their careers.

Meanwhile, they will be treating me in the last phase of my life, never really knowing the vibrant young person I once was. I guess this is just another facet of aging that I wasn’t prepared for and, admittedly, a hard pill to swallow (pun intended).

They say you can mark the passage of time through children’s growth; I think you can also mark time through your annual physician visits. Those medical records show a lifetime of development and living. It’s a tracking of your physical and mental being. In a perfect world, the elderly die before the young. So, it’s the natural course that the doctors of my young adulthood would bow out to make room for younger physicians, at the same time I enter into the latter part of my life.

In an odd way, I guess it is kind of a privilege to be part of a physician’s budding practice – TWICE. My initial doctors brought me to a certain point and my new, current doctors will see me through the balance.

Trust me, I am thankful to remain on the continuum and, who knows, perhaps these younger doctors will make their mark on the world in a very different way from their predecessors. Yes, they have large shoes to fill, but now that I am the elder statesmen, I’m just thankful I have access to new technologies and eager minds and look forward to seeing what medicine’s finest do next.

Also read, No More Pap Smears: 11 Outrageous Signs I am Aging.

What Are Your Thoughts:

Have you seen any of your doctors retire? How have you navigated the changing medical landscape as you age? Any helpful hints?