Gushing

There’s no way I can write about Dr. Glenn Geelhoed without gushing. I joked once with him that the last time I was so taken with someone I was twelve years old and in love with Ricky Nelson. Well, I’m in love with my husband, but as one person put it, I recognize genius when I see it.
In addition to being a medical doctor, Glenn Geelhoed is an anthropologist, a zoologist, a hunter, a marathon runner, a horse back rider, a mountain climber, and a philosopher. He has granted me permission to write some of his stories on this blog, and it is my sincere hope that I can convey to you not only his brilliant mind but also his brilliant goodness.
Dr. Geelhoed keeps journals on his medical mission trips, takes lots of pictures and since he graciously added me to his e-mail list, I get them totally unedited, straight from Tanzania, or Old Fangak or whatever other corner of the world he is in. I await them with the same anticipation as Londoners might have waited for the latest Sherlock Holmes series. What strikes me is that Sir Arthur’s stories were fantastically untrue, but so believable while Dr. Geelhoed’s stories are so fantastically unbelievable, but so true.
I have printed out all his journals and they fill a huge expandable folder that I keep on the floor by my desk. The pages are replete with yellow highlights. I’ve re read each at least five times and probably could even quote from them if pressed. I believe that the University of Toledo’s Medical Hall of Fame may serve as a library resource for all his annotated notes. I hope that is true, but I also hope someone is editing them and putting them into a book. Meanwhile, you will be hearing a lot about Dr. Geelhoed on this blog. He’s a practical man with a vision.
“Surgery is the platform on which we gain trust,” he explained to a group of medical students recently. “If we fix a guy’s goiter, he may listen to us when we tell him he has to take medicine and maybe he’ll let us vaccinate his kids. That’s a lot of bang for one routine surgery.”
Am I gushing??