|
When I asked him
how he came to wear so many different coats, he laughed and muttered,
"Because I'm crazy…."
He isn't crazy, just
a man who has spent most of his life trying to balance medicine and spirituality.
Dr. Meulendyk majored in biology and chemistry in college, even though
in high school he planned on entering the ministry. After college he went
to dental school at the University of Michigan, where he also managed
to pick up a master's degree in public health administration. Afterward
he attended MSUCOM and became a practicing anesthesiologist for close
to sixteen years.
"As an anesthesiologist
I dealt with people in pain," he explains, "but I came to see that many
of my patients could be made pain free but were still suffering in less
tangible ways. You'd be amazed at how honest some folks can be before
they go under for surgery. Many had what I would call existential suffering;
they had questions about life and death and what might happen to them."
"These are the fundamental
questions of life," Dr. Meulendyk explains, "and I think most people stay
busy to avoid these questions."
A decisive moment
came in 1996, when Dr. Meulendyk developed a severe neuropathy in his
extremities, a condition that persists to this day. Dr. Meulendyk left
his career as an anesthesiologist and became a full-time patient seeing
dozens of physicians-an experience that profoundly shaped his approach
to medicine.
"I experienced the
best of the health care system and the worst. When people didn't know
I was a physician, I was poked, I was prodded, I was talked over. They
thought I was a crock because they couldn't figure out what was wrong
with me. I think too many physicians have lost that patient-centered approach.
Medicine often seems like a business now, and that's tragic because it's
antithetical to everything medicine should be."
Eventually, Dr. Meulendyk
found good care in the hands of a couple of MSUCOM physicians. He credits
his classmate Anne Pawlak, DO, and the legendary Philip Greenman, DO,
for helping him manage his neuropathy.
Particularly impressed
with Dr. Greenman's expertise in manual medicine, Dr. Meulendyk decided
that manual medicine should be an integral part of his career in medicine.
"There is enormous spiritual power in touching other human beings," he
says. "For instance, I have found that people who are dying really want
and need to be touched."
Having finished seminary
in 1999, Dr. Meulendyk is now pursuing his doctorate in theology, taking
manual medicine courses, and working with a health ministry program to
learn how to deal with patients from a pastor's point of view. When he
starts to practice again, you can bet that Dr. Meulendyk will continue
the spiritual power of touch
|
