Do you have a doctor you especially like?

Is there a doctor you especially trust — someone who makes you feel like you are in good hands?

If your answer is yes then I hope you don’t take that doctor for granted.

When I lived in Palmerton I knew I was blessed to have Dr. John Nicholson as a family doctor.

Way back then, he occasionally even made house calls, but only when he had to. He did everything he could to help every single one of his patients, even if it meant his own time off was almost nonexistent.

The thing is, he was the kind of doctor I knew I could trust. With his calm demeanor and attention to detail, I used to think if I had to get had news he was the kind of doctor I wanted to have.

Way back in time when I was 44, I went to him complaining of severe headaches and other serious problems. He ordered X-rays and said he would get back to me.

The news was devastating.

According to the tests, I had a brain tumor. Dr. Nicholson had tears in his eyes when he told my husband.

It was another extraordinary doctor I called when I got the news. Dr. Louis Sportelli was a chiropractor with deep connections in the medical community. When I told him l had a brain tumor and needed a good surgeon, he had a strange answer.

He said I was “lucky” because an Allentown surgeon had just come back from being schooled in a new technique that made brain surgery less risky.

I had compete faith in Dr. Sportelli’s recommendation.

At that time brain surgery was scary and resulted in a long rehabilitation. Thanks to the new technique, I woke up soon after surgery with a question. “Did I miss lunch?”

Thanks to the skill of a good doctor, I have had many more years of life.

I always thought we were lucky living in the Lehigh Valley because we had good doctors and access to great medical care.

There was one serious exception when I had a close encounter with an extremely poor doctor.

After my husband had to undergo serious surgery for two kinds of cancer, he was in incredible pain. My heart was broken when I was driving home from the hospital that night.

At 9 p.m. a doctor I didn’t know called my cellphone while I was driving home. He told me tests revealed Andy also had “the worse case of prostate cancer the doctor had ever seen.”

He told me there was “no hope” for my husband’s survival. He said I might want to call our family to say goodbye to Andy because they weren’t going treat him and would just keep my husband comfortable until he passed away.

I asked him what kind of doctor he was to call me 9 o’clock at night to tell me “there was no hope” for Andy.

I discovered he was not only a cold doctor, he was also an incompetent one.

Fortunately, my best friend, Priscilla, and her husband drove us to Fox Chase Cancer Hospital the next day, where we learned there was plenty of medical treatment that would help Andy.

Indeed, Andy lived for 12½ years and didn’t die from cancer.

The incredibly poor doctor had the nerve to ask me to do a newspaper story on his treatment of cancer patients. I told him I doubted he would appreciate what I would write about him.

I never took good doctors for granted. That’s especially true now that I’m living in Florida, where there is an extreme shortage of doctors.

Fortunately, my primary physician is an extraordinary doctor who goes above and beyond to help patients.

Today I asked if she would accept my husband as a patient. Since I’ve been with her for years I thought she would do it.

But she told me her partner just left and they can’t find a suitable replacement. That means her workload doubled and she already works until late at night so she can’t accept any more patients.

That’s the story in many towns here in Florida. As our population keeps growing in leaps and bounds, and our doctors keep leaving or retiring, the shortage of doctors is acute.

I just called for an appointment with a cardiologist my primary doctor recommended. I was told there is a one-year waiting list to see that doctor.

There is even a long waiting list for an X-ray, mammogram or medical tests.

So we have to wait months to see a doctor then endure another long wait to get the tests. After that, it’s another wait to get back to hear the results.

Many doctors are hiring nurse practitioners, but it’s often a few weeks to get to see one.

I’m sitting here singing, “Oh, where, or where have all the doctors gone.”

I know some areas in big cities have more doctors. Sure, many have a waiting lists but at least many are still accepting new patients. It’s the smaller towns that are hurting big time.

If you have adequate medical care I hope you value what you have.

Never take anything for granted.

Email Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net