Jennifer,
I just remembered another time when knowing a doctor as a PERSON changed my fearful feelings into trust. About 5 years ago, I had a pretty bad speed skating accident. I smashed my wrist into so, so many pieces. When I got to the hospital, they tried a very painful and unsuccessful closed reduction ( I call it the Crunch and Munch procedure.) The docs had to take me to the operating room for an ORIF (Open Reduction and Fixation.) J, you know what that is. All of the screws and plates used to piece your bones back together.They could do nothing for my Ulna, but the radius was rocking! I learned that the young doctor had been a drummer before med school. That instantly put me at ease. "A-ha. Another musician. Thank God!" I looked at him, and said ," You've got to save my hand. It's the hand, all about the hand." He smiled knowingly, and I have to say, that 5 years later, my broken hand is BETTER than it was before I broke it. I can reach octaves effortlessly now, whereas before, I had to stretch. He set my hand in a slightly different anatomical position. (I believe that it's called the Cotton-Loder position.) My hand is "better than before," to quote that 1970s series, "The Six Million Dollar Man." I am now bionic-lol! Maybe I could imagine that my spine was being surgically fixed in such a way; better living through bionics!