The death of a young person is always a tragedy. Recently in this little town, there was the death of a young person in her/his 20s of a chronic medical condition. It really doesn't matter what the cause is. But, for the sake of this story that was the cause.
One of the great things about primary care is at the same time one of the most painful things about primary care - namely the relationships that docs like me experience. I know I haven't done a good job of "disguising" things or "de-identifying" things from a personal standpoint. You could probably infer from my writing that this person was connected in some way with the office.
Sometimes there are incidents in life which really make you think of what is important in life. It's not really what's going in in other parts of the country, or other parts of the world. What matters is what is happening right here - things that will definitely not make the evening news, yet will impact me in ways that I don't even know about yet.
Life in a small town as a primary care doc gives me experiences - both good and bad - I would not get anywhere else in the world. Where am I going with this rambling post that doesn't make sense? Who knows? Maybe for the first time in a long time I'm really thinking of my mortality? Maybe I'm angry that, yes, sometimes bad things happen to the nicest people. Maybe it just comes down to asking myself - What is really important to me in my life right now? Hmmmmm.....