Dr. Cody Gunn

Cody Gunn, M.D., Northeast Georgia Surgical Healthcare

This won’t be your typical biography for a physician – this is from a patient’s perspective. I think it would be a good gut check for all doctors to have a patient write about them because I assure you the patient’s perspective of a physician is quite different from the physician’s perspective of themselves.

The first time I met Dr. Gunn I wasn’t quite sure if he was one of the “good guys” or a typical doctor – you know the old “God complex” thing, and the moving of patients in and out as quick as possible for maximum impact and all. (Psssst, yes most of us “normal” people talk about doctors in those terms because they tend to talk over our heads, and are too busy to make time for friendly conversation or what I call “kinnin”, and seem to be too busy to really make a connection with the patient – sometimes we do feel like cattle.)

So about 5 minutes into meeting Dr. Gunn, I was pretty sure there was a connection there that I could nurture. We all, as human beings, have to take responsibility for creating healthy relationships with people we come in contact with – it’s a two way street and sometimes you have to make the first move. The easy path is to meet a person, get what you need from them, and move on. I’m as guilty of that as anyone, and sometimes you just want to be lazy and not have to work at it. But I knew this would be a battle of monumental proportions for me – more important than any other crisis I have endured in my life – and I wanted an ally to ferry me through. Dr. Gunn was that channel for me, and he hasn’t shied away from it at all.

I pleased for his email address because that is how I communicate best in writing (comes from being in business and documenting everything)….he tendered it to me very cautiously. I assured him I wouldn’t abuse it, and i’m pretty sure I kept that promise. The first time I used it was about a week before the surgery he performed on me (you know the one where he cut off my boob!). I sent it at 3:59p that Tuesday, and in less than 5 hours after a full day of surgery and who knows what else, my inbox surprised me with a response. That was like a big “wow” moment for me – a doctor that actually cares about a patient beyond the office hours. It was a serious issue I wanted some guidance on, and he had actually already pondered the question and taken action on it before I even posed the question to him. It was a big relief to have someone on my team taking swings for me. Since then, I have felt completely at ease with asking him for any help or advice, during office hours of course as much as possible.  I noticed he had an iPhone too – what luck that I found a high tech doctor, even though he doesn’t have a web site but I didn’t hold that against him. Instead of using the internet to research him I went to my network. Anyone that knows anything about me, knows I am a very well networked person. I must have talked to half a dozen people about Dr. Gunn and couldn’t find a single person that would say anything but excellent things about him.

And be on the lookout for an actual web site for Dr. Gunn. I might actually get that taken care of before the big “C” if I get my way.