Posted by fallsfall on December 2, 2004, at 14:12:02
I found out recently that my GP has resigned from his practice. He started the practice about 4 years ago, and has a nurse practitioner working with him. I guess that the hospital bought the practice from him - they took over the billing etc. His resignation was very sudden, and when I asked where he had gone I was told that they didn't know. That a couple of other doctors would be filling in until they added someone on fulltime.
I've been seeing him for 13 years. He was the one who originally diagnosed my depression. He sent me to my first therapist. I've seen him in 5 different offices (3 different practices) over the years. I follow him around because I really, really like him.
I'm guessing that he and the hospital had a "disagreement" about how something was to be done, and he quit (or was asked to leave). He doesn't always play well with others (doctors) because he believes strongly in what he should do, and isn't very flexible about following office "rules".
I've searched for him on the internet, but the only info there is about where he used to be. I had an appointment with my pdoc yesterday. My GP told me (long ago) that he was a patient of my pdoc at one point for *his* depression. The first thing my pdoc asked in my appointment was whether I knew what was going on with my GP. I was planning on bringing it up anyway. Pdoc had heard that GP had left from other patients. I told Pdoc that I wanted to follow GP wherever he went. We discussed whether Pdoc could call GP to see how he was, but Pdoc wasn't comfortable with that. Pdoc occasionally sees him out at his church, but hadn't since the resignation, and said that he couldn't tell GP that I wanted to see him. But Pdoc suggested that I mail a letter to the hospital and ask them to forward it to GP. We both knew what town he lives in, and Pdoc actually told me what section of the town he thinks GP lives in, based on things that GP has told him in the past. Something about "You know where Route X is? It goes past that reservoir. He said something about going down a hill and his house was near the reservoir." Pdoc is volunteering this information to the patient who did internet searches and freaked out Old Therapist (whose office is across the hall from his...). I said that I might also send a letter to him with no street address in the town (it is a fairly small town and he has an unusual name), and see if that could get to him, too. So now I have a mission.
I went to the receptionist to make a new appointment and the phone rang. She answered it and is was friendly on the phone "How was your vacation? Yes, everything is fine here..." Turns out it was Old Therapist on the phone. So the phone got passed around to the people in the office. I wanted to say "Tell her I'm here, and I'm doing better, and I don't have to come back for 2 months!!!", but I didn't.
When I left the office, I decided to drive down Route X to see if I could find GP's house so I could put an address on the envelope. I crossed the town line from the town he lives in, and realized that Old Therapist's road was right there. I knew her address because I searched until I found it, but I never drove by (it is a very small deadend street). So here I am stalking my GP (with my Pdoc's blessing??), and driving past her road, and *I know that she is home (because she just called the office)*. How wierd. I did NOT drive past her house, but boy did I feel guilty about thinking about that, and about stalking GP (though I really know that I'm not doing anything wrong).
I didn't find his house, nor an area that really fit the description. But it may be on a street that is off of Route X. So I checked the maps for possibilities. My letter to him starts of with: "First, please know that I have no desire to invade your privacy. If you would prefer that I never contact you again, I will certainly honor that request."
I think I'll mail the letters today.
Just had to get this off my chest...
poster:fallsfall
thread:423416
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20041123/msgs/423416.html