Dr. Roger Olade – The Side of The Doctors That You May Not See

I moved to Arizona two years ago and the first person that I got to know was my neighbor Dr. Roger Olade. I have to be honest, when he first told me that he was a doctor here in Arizona my mind instantly thought about the back pain that I had been suffering and any other disease or disorders that I might want him to check out. I have no idea why we do that, if someone says they are a mechanic I never think ‘ooh, that’s handy, my fuel pump needs changing’. Anyway I digress, the point is that the doctor has made m feel very welcome here in Arizona and we have bonded a lot since I moved in. What is most fascinating about this is that I get to see a side to the doctor that not many do, and the reality may surprise you.

Fatigue

Roger Olade works in internal medicine and he generally works 5 days per week, and around 12 hours per day. The shifts vary of course but in general this is the kind of hours that he does. Sometimes there will be days when I don’t see him at all but whenever I have seen him after a full 5 days he looks utterly exhausted, to the point where he struggles to string a sentence together. We think of doctors as strong minded mean and women but the tiredness which their job gives them can bring them to their knees.

Studious

Doctor Olade has been practicing for 30 years and in spite of his rich experience, he still studies as though he was back at medical school. His study faces our kitchen and there will be many an evening when I go for a glass of water and see him with his head stuck in the books. When I asked him about this he tells me that he wants to make sure that he is always at the top of his game and that this is why he still studies so much.

Emotional

There have been a few late nights where the doctor and I have had a couple of Bourbons and he has opened up about how he deals with the stress of the job that he does. He tells me that the experience has made this far easier for him but for the first 10 to 20 years there would be many nights where he would come home and burst into floods of tears or suffer from night terrors because of what he had seen in the hospital during the day. In truth I imagine that this is very much the same for any medical professional and after pushing emotions aside all day they have to come out at some time.  

Next time you speak to or see a doctor, consider what goes on when they get home.