Doctor's Day 2023
Originally published in The Medical Post
The first week of May is very special to me. It marks the beginning of my “Birthday Week.”
While most people have a birthday, I like to celebrate the day of my arrival on Earth with a week long celebration.
It begins on May 1st with National Hospice Palliative Care Week (except this year when it starts on May 7).
May 2nd is National Harry Potter Day. Avada kedavra everyone!
The First Saturday in May is National Comic Book Day. My love of comics is well known.
May 4th: May the Fourth Be With You (and with you). Last year I wrote about someone I admire, Shaev Palpatine.
May 5th: Cinco de Mayo. My son thinks he speaks Spanish because we have been to Mexico. And just ask him about the Day of the Dead.
May 6th, 1975, around 10:15 am is when the magic happened.
May 6 is also the birthday of the greatest NHL GOALTENDER EVER: Martin Brodeur.
And on the 7th day I rest.
May 1st is also Doctor’s Day.
I, for one, would like to express heartfelt gratitude to the physicians who have played a huge role in my life.
I’ve written about many already but it bears repeating here:
Ciaran Sheehan: a mentor
The OMA 2017 Negotiations Committee
Balfour Mount, father of palliative care
If I was adding to this list, I would probably start with Soloman Beny Stern. He has been my family’s doctor for nearly 40 years. He has cared for my mom, dad and brother through thick and thin. He also wrote a reference letter for me in 1999 that helped me get into medical school.
Every Ontario resident should be as lucky as we are.
I would have to thank Caroline Marie Hamm for her dogged tenacity as an oncologist, which is an odd thing to say for a palliative care physician.
I could point to Sindu Mary Kanjeekal as a model for clinical excellence and compassion, who leads by example.
Kristen Marie Gyetvai, both an outstanding surgeon and good mom. Her son Patrick passes my son the ball when he’s open at the top of the crease.
Go Green, Go White. Can’t Read, Can’t Write.
Leonardo Cortese helped me with my fear of flying, among other things. Cowabunga.
I should probably book a periodic exam with my family doctor, John Charles Day. Long overdue for a guy pushing fitty.
Scott Douglas Wooder, Sohail Mohammad Gandhi and Shawn David Whatley, three men who helped show me the way at the OMA and what thoughtful leadership looks like.
But behind every doctor is a team that makes us look good. I’ve written about nurses and the interdisciplinary team.
But at the OMA, it is a veritable army of minions (I mean that in the nicest possible way) who do their part to improve healthcare for 14 million Ontarians. No role is too big or too small. Some of the most important work is done behind the scenes.
It is amazing what can be accomplished when one does not care who gets the credit.
The OMA is in Windsor this week for their AGM. I don’t recall them ever holding their biannual meeting here so I am looking forward to the river view from the DoubleTree Waterfront Ballroom as I wax nostalgic about the Committee on Committees.
I may have trained at Western, but Windsor is where I became a physician. I wasn’t born here, it is sure is where I grew, got married and had a kid.
Of course, the most disappointing interaction I ever had with a physician was some unnamed guy who once told my wife and I that we would never have kids. He wasn’t wrong. We had a superhero instead. Thank you Rahi Victory.
For 7 years, I was OMA Chair for the Section of Palliative Medicine. Acclaimed seven times, which is more than Booker-T. Serves me right for showing up to a meeting uninvited one day.
I enjoyed working on a few committees over the years including the Physician Action Working Group (put your PAWGs up in the air), the aforementioned NC-17 (which was NSFW) and currently smucking along as part of the HOCC Working Group.
I’m very proud of the CPOC program, which I helped create as part of the 2008 PSA, which rolled out in 2015 (not a typo, fun story). The allegations in the Globe story are true but first reported in the Windsor Star. And let’s not forget the BAF. There is also PCFA, which is just TMFA.
I will always be grateful to Paul Richard Zalan, who first told me I could get a free trip to Toronto as an SGFP delegate, during my first couple years as highly indebted new graduate physician. His son Rob saved my life once, just never ask a psychiatrist to use a stethoscope.
So Happy Doctor’s Day everyone.
Enjoy the week.
