DR. JOSEPH CONNOLLY, M.D., CONTRIBUTED THE NEXT TWO STORIES

Dr. Joseph Connolly, M.D., practiced in a suburb of the Twin Cities metro area, first in general practice, then as a family physician when the discipline was established. He subsequently joined the staff of the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. For several years he was the associate director of the medical school’s Rural Physician Associate Program (R-PAP). He traveled extensively about rural Minnesota, during which time he was my supervisor. He became an associate professor in the Family Practice Department until his retirement. Dr. Joe is my senior—by three months; I don’t let him forget. Allow me to introduce my old friend, Dr. Connolly, in his own words:

A Joy of Family Practice

Ray M. was a lad of seventeen when I first met him. It was the early 1950s. I had known his father during my internship, where he underwent treatment for terminal cancer of the lung.

Ray was in severe pain from symptoms of a dislocated inter-vertebral disc. His family was poor, had no health insurance, and hospitalization was not an option. So, I scrounged around, found equipment to apply traction and lugged it to his house. Weeks passed and he recovered without an operation, pain-free.

The family was Lebanese and belonged to an Eastern Orthodox Church. Ray confided to me, a Catholic, that he wanted to become a priest in the Western Catholic Rites. That was initially a dilemma, but after contacting the St. Paul/Minneapolis Bishop, Ray was eventually accepted to study for priesthood in the local seminary instead of going to Lebanon for training.

Years passed and I lost contact with Ray.

Recently, I was assisting at a funeral Mass for an eighty-eight-year-old Lebanese lady. The priest, a bearded sixty-nine-year-old, asked me my name. When I told him, he said, “You were my physician when I had the disc problem at age seventeen!” His problem had not recurred, and he had been a priest in a small Minnesota community for forty-five years.

We were both happy to share our past histories, and I was pleased that he had been able to follow his life goals.

Imagine, this story started out with a house call on a young man I had not previously met. Connectedness across time and generations is a joy of being a family physician.

When You Least Expect It

Dave P. had a Phillips 66 service station a few blocks from my office, and along with other members of his family was a patient of my medical practice. Over a couple of years span I saw Dave in the office for vague complaints of weakness and tiredness. Despite a good diet/calorie intake, he could not hold his weight.

Those were the times when a service station owner pumped gas for his patrons. His was a busy place, so Dave was physically very active. One January, I went for gas and commented to him that he must have been on vacation in a hot climate as his face was so well-tanned. He denied having been away from snowy Minnesota.

It’s odd how the calculator that is a human brain does its job. Standing beside Dave, mine put together flashes of insight: tiredness, weakness, loss of weight, and a heavy tan not acquired from the sun.

Does the man have bronze diabetes?

Now it is time for a little doc-talk explanation. Bronze diabetes, better known as Addison’s disease, is caused by a deficiency in a person’s adrenal glands. Using tests then available, I was later able to confirm the diagnosis. I placed him on appropriate hormone replacement therapy. What a difference! He returned to full vigor and continued to operate his business for many years.

Addison’s Disease is rare. Dave’s is the only case of it I ever encountered in my practice. All those lectures on “fascinomas” (doc talk for rare and unusual conditions) can sometimes pay off to enhance a patient’s life.

A lecture and being at the right place at the right time and... call it a dash of Irish luck.

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