Professional Courtesy and Pay-It-Forward

Dublin 
Today I took my 6 year old male cat Dublin to the cardiologist. It was time for his yearly echo to monitor the changes in his heart. He has a genetic disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscles get thicker. It can either be benign for the life of the cat, cause sudden death, or be somewhere in between. His disease is stable and he had very minimal changes today compared with last year, which made me very happy.


His cardiologist has been seeing him for the past 3 years. When I was in vet school, he very nicely gave us a professional discount that was not insignificant, and which we appreciated very much. He was under no obligation to do this. Today, my first visit as a full-fledged veterinarian, he charged me absolutely nothing. I couldn't believe when I heard the receptionist say I was good to go, as I fully expected to pay the whole amount this time.

I left feeling amazing. Not so much because we won't have another few hundred on the credit card bill this month, but because someone did something nice and unnecessary for me. Just because. And I felt so honored, and that I am truly valued as a client - and as a referring DVM. That's the real value of what happened. I plan on sending a thank you of some sort next week, as well as pay-it-forward.

I hope that every time I give something to a client for free, it lifts their spirit and they feel compelled to do something for someone else. The world can be a better place... one random act of kindness at a time.


Comments

  1. Good for you! I hope the p-i-f simply cascades!

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  2. Hi to the people that are posting comments: i am not sure why they aren't showing up! If anyone knows let me know how to fix it.

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  3. NM! I fixed it. And I hope so too, Holly.

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  4. Hi! Just stumbled upon your blog and bookmarked it. Hooray!

    My cat recently died from HCM. She was 16 years old when I had to euthanize her. She had a stroke (and probably a heart attack too) last April and the wonderful staff at the emergency clinic saved her and gave me an extra year with her. I guess I'm telling you this because it is some comfort to me that my cat wasn't the only one with this heart problem. In all my experiences with cats (mine and friends) I had never heard of a cat with this condition.

    Anyways, love your blog and I'll be back!

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  5. HCM is more common than you think, its just most people don't know their cat has it until it's too late. Glad you got some extra time with her.

    Thanks for the compliments!

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