I knew there was something in my mouth that shouldn’t there!

I saw an ENT today to do a biopsy on the bump in my mouth, in my salivary gland, and what was supposed to be a pin prick ended up being a pulling out a pea sized blob of something.

There were cuts, stitches, blood and everything.

My son was sitting in the background (commenting on the entire procedure as it was going along of course :), and when it became clear more was going on then the doctor initially expected (the feeling in the air was shifting),

David said, “isn’t a biopsy just supposed to be taking a few cells to look at under a microscope?”

I think the doctor was still processing his own surprise regarding what was going to on, and said calmly and firmly, like a man who had the kindness to acknowledge the little voice in the room, yet completely focused on the task at hand,

“That’s what it’s supposed to be”.

And then came out the blob.

What amazes me about dealing with doctors on my case, is watching how they process what they expected or thought was going to happen, but then how they deal with the reality of what actually does happen.

The good ones know how to switch gears–some switch with visible surprise and shock, and some switch quietly, thoughtfully, like an elegant dancer who feels the music change and knows it’s time to switch steps…

This doctor was the elegant dancer kind.

Many doctors I’ve seen over the years have reacted like, “what a minute, you’re supposed to be on this path. All of my training says this path, here, go–”

The good ones who are shocked, still switch, but the bad doctors react like there is something wrong with me personally, they just think I should be on path A because path A is all they know–

I really like this doctor. Smart, classy, kind but also knows how to keep dancing when the music keeps changing…

I like him.