A Medical Professional Coincidence?

A couple of weeks ago, we got letters from our dentist.  He's retiring this summer.

It wasn't a surprise.  We've been going to him for 30 years.  Actually, that's not totally true.  When we started going to him, he was practicing with his father, whom I saw several times.  He pulled one of my wisdom teeth, in fact.  But, for many years it was just been the son in the practice, who I figure is about my age.

Kind of makes me feel a bit old.

That's what happens, sometimes, when you get to be "my age" (late 60's). People retire. I get that.  But when a medical professional you like gets ready to retire, it's traumatic.   You know them.  They know you.  You don't know how a new person would work out.

Last year, my sole practitioner dentist and his staff merged with a multiple dentist practice, leaving the office they had inhabited for many years.  It must have been traumatic for them, too.

Now, I have to make a decision:  stay (I've never met any of the other dentists) or seek a different practice.

I thought about it some more, and realize I'm going to be facing the medical retirement situation more than once in the coming years.  I've seen the same primary care practitioner for nearly 25 years.  I've seen the same nurse practitioner at my OB/GYN's practice for about the same amount of time.    Both of them are in, I would estimate, late middle age.

My nurse practitioner has been working part time since last year.  I figured it might have been due to COVID but maybe not.

So, just out of curiosity, I went to my OB/GYN's website to review their current staff, and got a surprise. 

Besides "my" nurse practitioner, there are two others.  I know of one of them - I had seen her once, years ago, when I had an urgent situation and my nurse practitioner had the day off.

It seems the practice "recently" (not knowing when the website was last updated) hired a new practitioner, who has four years experience in a primary practice.  I'll bet she's relatively young based on her picture.  Her last name brought back a memory, although it is a somewhat common name.

When I went into labor with my one child, over 30 years ago now, my OB was off, and the OB on duty responded when it was time.  She (yes, a woman) arrived  in my hospital room with - I assume - her daughter.  This young girl, I would estimate (in the midst of labor, I have no idea how accurate my impressions were!), was perhaps seven years old.

It was quickly obvious that this wasn't the child's first labor and delivery experience.  The doctor patiently explained my status (I was a high risk pregnancy) to the young girl.

The doctor who delivered my baby had the same last name as the new nurse practitioner.

Could it be the young girl, now grown, from my labor and delivery?  Or is it coincidence?

I wonder.

Now I really feel old.