 I've been going through a really difficult personal time in my life, having a hard time day to day, you know, trying to put on a really brief face for my kids and for work and to get through the day but just really struggling and at the end of the day I was talking to my family and my best friend and they shared with me that I really should go to the doctor and seek some help. I had lost a lot of weight and the last time I was meeting with my primary care physician she had told me if I lost any more weight I really needed to reach out to her. Bridget has been a patient of ours for in our practice for over 10 years and I've been very privileged to take care of her. During this last visit I was very concerned because I felt that Bridget had a had a change in her physical condition and it made me very worried in fact in the mind of a clinician especially an internist the first thing we think about when a patient loses weight without even trying is we're worried about cancer or serious problem health problems so we did some routine blood work and ran some basic tests but in the end what really helped me help her was to be able to sit down and listen to what she was saying. One morning I'm sitting at my desk and I get a phone call from Hackensack University Medical Center so I'm rocking my brain thinking maybe I missed an appointment or one of my kids had an appointment I couldn't remember why you know the hospital would be calling me and then I was like oh well maybe it's one of my team members and I pick up the phone and it's Dr. Tasonian and she just said I just want you to know obviously I'm checking in to see how you're doing but I just want you to know that I think you're so brave and so strong and so courageous to be able to go through what you're going through and still continue to do what you're doing with work you know trying to share a personal struggle trying to be a strong person is hard in itself and then to have a physician listen and understand just meant the world you know made me feel like a person a human and not someone that had to go through it alone. Something as simple as a phone call could have a huge impact. I feel 10 times better than I did when I came to see Dr. Tasonian and I'm definitely getting healthier every single day and I look forward to the time when I'm back to my full self.