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Years fly. Moments last forever.

I recently read this ad line in a promotion for the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. After thinking about it, many times this is so true in our lives and professional careers. A chance encounter takes place, it may be for just a moment, but the thanks that you may receive from a patient seem to last forever. In my case, twenty-nine years have seemed to just fly by, but some moments have helped to make it worthwhile.

Years ago, one of those moments involved a Christmas Eve story. A patient's young daughter was so sick on Christmas Eve, but her appointment with her pediatrician was for late that afternoon. Her mom was concerned that we would be closed and she would have to seek a prescription from a 24 hour pharmacy that she had never been to before. I told her not to worry, gave her my cell phone number, and advised her to call me and that I would be there for her. I took care of my last minute errands, waited for her call outside of the pharmacy, and after a short wait, a thankful mom called me. We went in the pharmacy, I quickly prepared her antibiotic prescription, and the look and the words form a sick little girl, "Thanks for helping me," are still vivid in my memory. Recently, I learned that this little girl is a senior in high school.

Another moment took place last month. We made a call to one of our patients to give him well wishes on his birthday. Mr. C is such a great patient, one of those who would always brighten your day. That was the reason for our sadness when we learned of his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Things like this should not happen to such a nice patient, but good news has come out of this difficult situation. It appears that from a new procedure, our patient has beaten the odds and overcome his diagnosis. He appreciated our call and you could hear the genuine thankfulness in his voice because we thought of him.

There is always hope. For some of those patients, getting involved can make a difference. November is the time to go purple for pancreatic cancer awareness. For more information, see the website for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: http://www.pancan.org/section_get_involved/pancan_awareness_month/

As Doc Graham said in Field of Dreams, "We just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening." Recognize them. Those moments can last forever and they can make a difference.