So I was talking to my husband this morning about Dr. Graulich, reminded of him because of Ziggy, of all things 😂
I'll explain that below, but for now, I just looked him up to see if he was still around and discovered he had died in January 2024 😢
Of the literally thousands of doctors I've transcribed for, including Boston academic hospitals, Dr. G. was my all-time favorite - possibly the most brilliant, definitely the funniest.
I laughed out loud, every single day. Because besides ensuring the latest neurological testing was brought to Lexington (now standard of care everywhere), as mentioned in the obit, he was hysterically funny.
Also, many of my grandmother's friends with neurological issues like MS, Parkinson's, and myasthenia gravis, were a patient of Dr. Graulich's and adored the man.
Now, Lexington, of course, is generally NOT known for having the best doctors in the country (despite UK grads thinking they are), but over the years, Lexington has been lucky enough to have two or three Ivy-League (or close) MDs settle here and practice, and Dr. G was one of them.
In fact, he was much beloved by all of Lexington; thus, the literal tribute book to him for purchase 😊
So he was originally at Lexington Clinic for years (back when LC used to be the best in town), until a major billing problem occurred in the 1990s and the best docs left, because they weren't getting paid.
However, as part of their contract, if they left, they weren't legally able to practice anywhere elese in Lexington for the next 5 years.
So he moved into his own private practice in nearby Georgetown (and his Lexington patients still followed), where he also dictated independent medical evaluations for disability claims, which is when I began transcribing for him.
A former group of Lexington Clinic on-site transcriptionists were also laid off to cut cost, and thus formed their own self-employed contracting service to still do the LC work, plus others who had left, like Dr. Graulich, and hired me as an apprentice transcriptionist.
(I was recruited two years later by a national contracting service, who also offered benefits, so I gave my notice and left; but later, I heard this local service went under, after cheap labor overseas became popular, which ultimately sunk the national service too, by 2006, along with the advent of voice recognition.)
I never actually got to meet him in person, as a subcontracting apprentice, and yet he became familiar with who I was based on my work, because apparently, he told my boss he thought that I was smart (debatable 😂), because I often caught discrepancies that others missed, and then he asked only for me to do his IMEs.
This was during a time when, as a single mother of a 4-year-old daughter, making literally peanuts as an apprentice, I didn't even have faith in myself, nor was I commended for pretty much anything I did, so it really meant a lot to me for him to do that, for such a well-respected physician to put his faith in me like that. 🥲
I think I remember the thing I caught, actually - he was dictating an IME for a court case for disability on neurological blindness, and he had dictated focusing on neurological vision degeneration in the left eye, but when he when he dictated the testing results, he dictated the normal neurological range for eyes in general, and I noticed the right eye, too, was out of normal range.
So I flagged it for possible discrepancy, either he misspoke the results or he had overlooked the test results for the right eye, focusing on the left.
I remember, he said something like:
"Oh, I see your flag. No, no, just the left eye that is in question for disability. This is very complex stuff, so don't be too hard on yourself ... wait a minute ... my God, you're right! The right eye IS starting to show some abnormal neurologic variation, too. Well, that'll be helpful to the patient's disability case, good job!"
From that moment on, he asked for me to exclusively do his transcription, and with me being a young apprentice, that was a lot of pressure, but since he was a clear dictator, he made it easy.
Then he began playing a little trivia game with me, like testing to find out how smart I actually was, I guess?
Lucky for me, I was good at trivia games - basically, I am a font of useless information (or at least I used to be). 😂
So he would ask me little obscure trivia questions at the end of his transcription, and I would answer them - in 1998, before Google - and I'd send back the answer with the work, and then he'd commend me and up the ante with an even harder question. I'd start doing the same, as a little game, just to see if we could stump the other one 😂
But the best was when he had to evaluate someone he clearly didn't think needed to be on disability.
He make little comments like "My colleague, Dr. Jones, who obtained his medical degree from the University of Antigua, has testified that ..."
Now, that looks fairly innocuous in print, but it was the sarcastic, silly way he said it ... "from the University of AnTIgua!?! hahaha!"
And sometimes, he'd add his little commentary and then strike it, like "His medical degree from the University of Kyrzatemcz? I've never heard of it. I've no idea where that is, but it sounds very far away. Is it real? lol. Of course, don't put that last bit in there."
(Of course, that wasn't the university he said, I just made that up, I don't remember what it was.)
After a while, he stopped saying what to put in and what not to, because I knew his little jokes versus what he wanted in there.
And he would often tell hilarious anecdotes or full stories. during his dictations, or something would remind him of a quote, which he'd do in perfect impersonation.
Once, he said:
"I have been accused, by a person whose neurological evaluation didn't turn out the way they hoped, of being a lackey for the government. Note how upset I am over that accusation, by a person that wants to live off of the government rather than work, despite nothing at all being wrong with them neurologically lol."
"Speaking of which, who said 'You are an imperial lapdog for the Chinese capitalist empire,' Chrystal?"
I answered, "I'm not sure, but it sounds like something Mao Tse Dong/Zedong (sp?) might've said?"
Ding, ding, ding, I was correct!
And oddly enough, that is the part made me think of him today and looking him up.
Because pugs really were the official imperial lapdogs for the Chinese empire, and I jokingly called Ziggy my little imperial lapdog 😂
Thus, it made me think of Dr. G.
RIP, Dr. G - thank you, for giving me a chance and having faith in my ability to one day grow up to be a full-fledged transcriptionist (which I have). 😊
Now, I'm nowhere near to being the best there is, but ya know, I can hang lol.