Is There A Doctor In The House?

Are you old enough to remember when a doctor was a doctor?  I mean, I go all the way back to house calls, so that tells you how close to covered wagon days I am.  Growing up, we had a doctor that treated any and  all ailments.  He was it.  You didn't have one doctor for your foot and another for your throat and another for your stomach.

I remember when I first had kids, the family doctor delivered them.  By the late 60's, when my youngest was born, I had an ob/gyn.  Specialists had entered the field.  There were pediatricians, orthopedic specialists, cardiologists, ear/eye/nose & throat.  You knew that your doctor had extra "specialized" knowledge and you now were supposedly getting better care.

Today, specialization has reached a new high, or low, depending on how you look at it.  Specialties are now broken into finer specialties.  The orthopedic man isn't; now you have a hip specialist, a knee specialist, elbows, shoulders, neck, back.  There's a doctor for the colon, another for the stomach, another for livers, and on and on.

I've had my share (and yours too) of hip replacements.  One leg has been bothering me lately.  Since it's painful and winter is coming, I want to know if it's hip again or back or nerve damage or ???  I called my orthopedic surgeon's office and was told he doesn't "do" legs.  I finally convinced the voice on the other end of the phone that I needed to start by checking out the hip first and then, if it's not the problem, the doctor can   refer me to whichever specialist I do need to see.  Of course I won't see the doctor, I'll see a practitioner.  (It was bad enough when doctors 'practiced' medicine, now the person who sees and treats you is actually called a practitioner.)


Now I'm happy that the 'practice' of medicine has progressed as it has but at the same time I can't help but wax nostalgic and miss the Dr. Welby days.