Interview with Adrian: Part I

[Sunstone]

Greetings, Denizens of RF, I come bearing a gift!

Recently, @adrian009 foolishly consented to my interviewing him. Little did he suspect I would barrage him with an incessant onslaught of PMs prying into every aspect of his life.

However, he bore up admirably. Took it all in stride. Didn't break into a sweat more than twice. Which is a good thing because it turns out Adrian is a fascinating man, and I was left with a whole lot of material to boil down into a series of short interviews.

This first interview is on Adrian's life and work as a doctor. So grab some popcorn and we'll get started right away.

 

[Sunstone]

SUNSTONE: About that copy of the Kama Sutra you keep on your bedside table. According to your cleaning lady, there are numerous hand-written corrections in the margins. How are those related to your medical practice?

ADRIAN: Busted. Someone’s obviously hacked into my computer and used the camera to take video images and shared them on social media! One of my teenage kids was telling me Mark Zuckerberg puts tape over the camera lens. Sounds like great advice.

 

[Sunstone]

SUNSTONE: You're what we use to call a "family doctor", a General Practitioner, or GP. What's the greatest challenge to being a GP?

ADRIAN: The challenge is that anyone can walk in with any problem. That provides an opportunity to problem solve on the one hand and build long term doctor patient relationships on the other. That can be very rewarding. It can also be very challenging when patients have unrealistic expectations.

At present I have a long term locum position where I serve a rural community about an hour and a half out of town and am usually away overnight at least once a week. The travel and workload can be tiring. None of us are getting any younger!

On the whole being a GP is a great job and a real privilege to serve my community in this way.

 

[Sunstone]

SUNSTONE: Do you do any pro bono work?

ADRIAN: For many years I've been doing volunteer work at a local Christian Medical Center that provides free care to those most in need.

The clinic is the only free clinic in town and to its credit it really does serve those in our community most in need. It was started up about 10 years ago by a group of Baptist Christians who also thought it would be a fantastic way of spreading the Gospel of Christ. I don't get involved in the Bible studies since I'm not a Christian. Instead, I focus on the medical side

I have been working at the Centre for over 8 years and have some great doctor-patient relationships with some of the people I serve. The majority of people we see are on the fringes of society, the down and outs so they really value the connections they make with all the staff. Religion and politics aside many staff and patients are great people to work alongside.

 

[Sunstone]

SUNSTONE: As a doctor, I imagine you sometimes must make potentially life or death decisions based on incomplete information. Do you have any particular strategies for making a good decision under such trying circumstances?

ADRIAN: Doctors are trained to look for red flag symptoms, that would be suggestive of a more serious illness.

Last week when I had this woman in her early 60s tell me about her persistent headache, coordination problems and subtle speech changes that had been going for 5 days. She didn't want to trouble anyone! The alarm bells rang for me and I arranged to have her sent to hospital via ambulance and sure enough she had had a stroke.

As a GP I'm part of a health system with specialists who know much more than me about their area of expertise. So if in doubt a specialist is only a phone call away. Many problems I haven't a clue what is happening but sending patients for investigations may provide answers as well as provide some invaluable thinking time.

Its important to learn from mistakes when they inevitably do arise. Accepting responsibility is essential.

 

[Sunstone]

That wraps up the first part of our interview. Stay tuned for Part II during which I ask Adrian about his weird obsession with the mating habits of houseflies and his ceaseless efforts to get them to wear tiny, little condoms so he won't need to 'murder' their offspring.