The moon is beautiful

He's the kind of man you call an emphatic. He has 45 years, the great class, the always trendy Hugo Boss suit, a white shirt, a pastel tie, shoes always well polished. The gray metal car, tinted windows always park in double file. He goes down as fast as if he had to take a train.

He comes to see me regularly. He hates to wait, stands in front of my desk to come before the others. I have known him for ten years and I cannot say what his job is, it’s like “business and communication marketing consultant”.

He has a bluetooth headset at all times and surely speaks live with New York, London or Tokyo !!

When he comes to see me, he prepared a Bristol board to raise the essential points.

« Hi ! (he adores, as Jean Claude Vandame, speak with english words ) I'm coming for many problems.

– Hello Man (so I give her a very Vandame answer) Where is Bryan? in the kitchen ?

– Stop mocking doc ’, I'm not well ! »

He takes his card and looks : " blood pressure? »

I take her in both arms : 13/8 perfect !

He streaks on the Bristol and marks the reassuring figure with his Mont-Blanc pen bigger than big..

– Insomnia ! When I am going to bed I do not sleep, too much busy surely.

– Stilnox ?

– Oh, ok thanks, stilnox. »

He bars insomnia.

"Now doc", examine me thoroughly, I think I have serious liver disease. »

Clinical examination shows nothing. I offer him a report. He is the kind of patient who is an internet follower to diagnose his pathology before me.

"Given my fatigue and my discomfort on the right, I may have hepatitis, liver cancer ? »

I try in vain to reassure him but I confirm to him that it is only after the assessment that we will know. He interrupts me taking a call which he answers through the headset. Crossing out the word cancer on the little card and adding a big question mark. He doesn't want to give his vital card, he pays me by increasing the price, like alms, talk about the little recognition of doctors.

He comes back every week for a new problem. He had the result of the assessment, perfectly normal. Today he has a headache and, in his prepared questionnaire, he is convinced of a brain tumor. He wants a scanner !

"I'm sure I have Brain Stem Glioblastoma doc"!

– Why?

– Headache, fatigue, weightloss :this is what i typed on the net and the diagnosis is obvious ! »

I explain to him the dangers of self-diagnosis because the words typed on the keyboard could have concluded by slight overwork ... but he wants his scanner!

Another shaky time comes, unwell.

« Hello doctor, now i have it !

– What?

– Colon cancer ! »

The exam, the symptomatology and the epidemic context make me think much more of a classic gastroenteritis but, with this sick style, I'm still scared. I ask him to do my anti-gastro treatment and we will explore later if there is no improvement.

Every time, I see him disappointed that I do not meet his expectations, and yet he comes back to see me because he says he only trusts me.

This permanent worry pushes me one day when I am quieter to ask him questions about his permanent stress of the disease.

He says everything is fine, that he invented nothing but his headaches, his diarrhea, his fatigue are very real and that, if this continues, he will change doctor.

There comes a day with his hand on his heart having difficulty speaking. Passing in front of everyone, he slumps in the chair.

« Hi, doc ’I have a heart attack, I have a pain in my chest ! They pinch me.

– You are stressed right now?

– That's not the problem, I certainly have a big cash flow problem, but here it is !! »

In front of this kind of signs I always prescribe a request for troponin (high in myocardial) and I systematically send to the cardiologist .

He leaves the cabinet almost satisfied that, for once, I make him do an examination… proof of my concern !

The result an hour later is strictly normal, simple overwork entrusts me my cardio buddy.

It is secret about his personal life. I know he has two children but never talks about his love life in general. Today he is forced to tell me about it because he arrives very worried:

"I can't handle everything doc anymore", I am exhausted, my kids, my work, my intimate life.

I am surprised by this “letting go” and seeing it not connected with a businessman from across the Atlantic but simply with the harsh reality of life.

Having no time that day, I suggest he come and eat at noon the next day in my canteen.

Obviously he arrives with the quarter of an hour late from Bordeaux. He returns hair in the wind, shake a few hands, smash his cigarette and sit in front of me.

"Sorry doc", my banker is always late.

– Your cash will get better ?

– Non, I will file for bankruptcy but it does not matter, car, saw what i have, I don't care anymore !

– You have what ?

– Smiling side ! »

Thinking once more that his diagnosis came from the Internet doctor I dare a small smile ..

" Do not laugh, for once it's true!

– But you took exams ?

– Yes, I donated my blood and they called me! »

At this moment, his, who for years was concerned, major hypochondriac seems serene, relaxed. He has just learned what some cannot bear to know and seems happy to him., released.

He then begins to tell me everything, all !

"I never spoke to you, doc ’because my life is a secret. I was married to Isabelle, I had known her at school, she was the woman of my life. We had a first child, Baptiste, then, very soon after, we had little Margaux. After childbirth, Isa hemorrhaged, we transfused it and, two years later, we realized that she was HIV positive. Stupidly we never said anything, it was our secret. We told everyone when she started her illness that it was cancer. She left two years later. Since that day, I never wanted to take the test, I came to interrogate you every week, I invented myself cancer, an heartstroke, a tumor and, deep inside me, I knew very well that I was afraid to face reality. I had to raise my children, to work, spare my parents .

Then yesterday, my son had his engineering degree, my daughter is a nurse. I went to give my blood to find out. Today doc ’I feel good, freed from so many years of stress. »

Honestly i was having a lot of trouble finding this sympathetic patient, I found him pretentious, “Show-off” and hypochondriac. Today, I discover a wonderful man, humble, courageous, responsible. I blame myself for not having been able to detect his suffering, to have had a wrong judgment.

It's been ten years since this story happened. He is treated by tri-therapy, his results are very good, he is a grandfather and lives with a very beautiful woman.

We can speak of remission since its viral load is always zero. He told me a few days ago :

"You know doc", I am in good shape, my children and grandchild are well. My darling is fabulous. You know that in Asia, when out of modesty we dare to tell a woman that we love her, we say : "The moon is beautiful !» . So, really today, the moon is really beautiful like my life. »

Dr House

http://www.drmaison.fr/