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>> I love being a rheumatologist.
I love that diagnostic challenge and the intellectual challenge of that,
but I also love that I get to do longitudinal care for patients.
So once patients have a rheumatic disease, they are with a rheumatologist typically
over the rest of their life course.
And so I find that actually rewarding to have that relationship and to work with them
to then make their life as optimal as possible.
I like to meticulously go through outside records and go through their past history.
I think also, patients are often quite savvy, so they, I try to be a good listener
and hear what they're telling me.
A lot of times, patients can help you kind of zero in on the key symptoms.
I often tell patients we have two goals.
One is for us to get smarter about the diagnosis,
but the other is for them to feel better.
And often, I can help them feel better even while we're making those diagnostic steps
and doing additional testing and doing additional follow up;
we can work on symptom management while we're trying to gather additional information.
That's hugely gratifying to work with patients, to help get the right diagnosis,
get them on an optimal disease course and help them get back to living.
I've got a guy I just took care of this week who told me he's back to coaching two
of his kids' sporting teams, after being on crutches last year,
which is just phenomenal to hear things like that.
I've got some women who have had healthy pregnancies in the last year,
and all those things are great things to celebrate, people just getting back to living.
I think as physicians, we get an up close glimpse at people's lives
that is a unique glimpse and really a gift and I really enjoy meeting people and walking
with them, sometimes through rough times with new diagnoses and things and then walking
through that with them and seeing them get back to what they value and enjoy in life.