I remember this patient as if the visit were today. At one point he showed me something that I had not seen
in my examination of his ear nose and throat - a number tattooed on his wrist.
I paused the interaction at one point and went out of the room to tell my secretary to inform my waiting
patients that something had come up and that I would be very late in seeing them and giving them a chance to re-schedule. One patient was irritated and even wrote me a letter telling me how my schedule was unacceptable and what a bad person I was. That is what happens sometimes. My choice was to 'be' with my suffering patient that day. I wouldn't change a thing.
