Dr. Tarantolo

I have to admit, I had a pretty poor opinion of doctors as I was growing up. I was thinking about this the other day, wondering where that attitude came from. My folks never talked ill of doctors, generally, so where did this attitude come from?

It turns out that much of this attitude was picked up from a few of the friends I hung out with. Who knew I was so impressionable? Anyway, going into all of this with the great feeling I had toward doctors, and to have my first visit with a doctor result in a diagnosis of leukemia, I wasn't too psyched up to meet Dr. Tarantolo.

Well, like it usually goes when you have your mind made up about people, you find that those impressions you had when you were a kid are usually way off base. I realized that as soon as I introduced myself to Dr. Tarantolo. He was just what I needed at the time. He was confident and reassuring. He took the time to talk to me more about CLL, and he took the time to get to know me.

In the course of the non-medical talk we had in the beginning, I told him I was a Springsteen fan, and with him being a Jersey guy, he had stories. He knows guys who know guys, so once he finished up the medical talk for the day, we would talk about the other things going on in the world. It was good to be able to relate to a doctor and to see he made the effort to be a regular guy. A regular guy who happens to be a great doctor.

Once all my initial testing was finished, and he knew more about my condition, our visits were probably 80-20, with the medical conversation as the low number there. That worked for me, and with each visit, that 20% was helping me take a more positive approach to what I was going through.

Looking back on all of this, I would say that I'm not sure I would've been as positive about all of this had I met with a different doctor that first day. The positive attitude would come in handy as we went along.