Last Sunday I consumed a 4-liter jug of GoLYTELY, 8 ounces at a time, every ten minutes, until I had finished it, in preparation for a long overdue colonoscopy and upper endoscopy early on Monday morning in Tacoma. The procedures had been scheduled/canceled/rescheduled and postponed several times due to COVID-19 in Seattle at Virginia Mason.
I have a history of recurrent colon polyps and a strong family history of colon cancer, so it was concerning to have the procedures put off any longer.
I finally made an ‘executive decision’ and reached out to M. Frank Lyons, II, M.D. of Franciscan Digestive Disease Center in Gig Harbor to see about having the procedures done closer to home – either in Gig Harbor or Tacoma. At last the planets aligned! And it was just in time.
Dr. Lyons had been my gastroenterologist in years gone by, but after a change in insurance several years ago, we had lost contact. He had also been one of my cherished medical transcription clients from the early 1990s.
Earlier this week I wrote a post about this on my Facebook page. Lisa Brooks, Seattle broadcast journalist commented, “Never in my life would I think I would read a nostalgic and loving post about a COLONOSCOPY. But damn, girl. You did it.”
In the early years of my medical transcription business, I performed all of the transcription for Dr. Lyons and his partner when they opened their first private practice office in Lakewood. Dr. Lyons had been the Chief of Gastroenterology at Madigan Army Medical Center. Their practice, Gastroenterology Consulting Services, grew and grew, leading them to open clinics in Gig Harbor and Puyallup, too. Then they morphed into Tacoma Digestive Disease Center. I continued to do all of the transcription for all three of the locations.
My original career path early in life had been to go to med school and become a physician myself. Both my cousin Kenny Howell and I were on the same trajectory. Sadly, he was killed in a car v. train crash. That derailed my path to med school, but I went on to a diverse and broad-based career in allied health care fields and broadcasting.
I learned a great deal from Dr. Lyons in the years I was working with him. I’ve always had a passion for medical terminology and in the field of gastroenterology there are some top-notch terms such as ERCP, which stands for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Or how about just a simple esophagogastroduodenoscopy? Another one of my favorites! And I learned so much more from Dr. Lyons. Well, I digress…
The practice Dr. Lyons started in the early ‘90s has grown exponentially. Today there are seventeen providers in it and it is now known as Franciscan Digestive Care Associates.
Fast forward to the present — October 2020 — and Dr. Lyons is retiring from practice this week. It was my good fortune to get squeezed in to his appointment calendar to have both a colonoscopy and an upper endoscopy done at the beginning of his final week in private practice.
Dr. Lyons is, in my opinion, the best GI doc anyone could ever hope to have. He’s gained s an incalculable amount of firsthand knowledge over the years from seeing “tens of thousands of patients” by his own estimation. Plus, he has conducted research and been published.
Thankfully, Dr. Lyons’ three books are available to pass along some of his wisdom regarding diabetes, metabolic syndrome, trans fats and how even when people are reading food labels meticulously as they try to avoid trans fats, that the FDA has allowed the wording and hidden quantities to go unreported within their own guidelines, so people are still unwittingly being subjected to unacceptable quantities of killer trans fats on a daily basis. This might surprise you: butter and animal fats are not the killers.
Dr. Lyons also explores the impacts of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) used in soda pop and many other foods that are staples in our modern American diet, gluten, artificial sweeteners and many other important nutritional topics that relate to inflammation and how it has wreaked havoc on our health in the US especially during the past 60 years.
Dr. Lyons won’t be lounging around on a park bench at the beach when he retires (unlike the stock image supplied with my article).
I told Dr. Lyons I wish so much that with my background over the past 15 years in healthcare marketing that we could get him on TV for national exposure to share his vast knowledge, but he said, “I’m no Dr. Oz.” We laughed. But then he got serious again and said that the knowledge he has acquired is there in his books for each of us to seek out for our own benefit.
I encourage you to visit Dr. Lyons’ website and educate yourself. www.lyonsmedicalnews.com/
Amazon carries all three of Dr. Lyons’ books and are available for Kindle downloads for about the price of a cup of coffee.
Dr. Lyons is retiring to live The Lyons Lifestyle himself full-time now. That is also the title of his most recent book. Look for The Lyons Lifestyle here. His second book details the deleterious effects of fructose aka HFCS in our foods. It is called Fructose Exposed. His first lifechanging book was entitled 42 Days to a New Life. Again, all are available now from Amazon.
Best wishes to Dr. and Mrs. Lyons as they’ll be spending more time with their nine grandkids creating cherished family memories…
Great story about a great doctor I have had the privilege of working with for 21+years, he will be missed by so many but mainly his patients that have believed in him for years! Thank you, Sue
Dr. Lyons’ genuine caring is unmatched. Patients sense that. And I’m sure you have seen that firsthand over the 21 years you’ve been with him, too. I understand that Dr. Tsuchida will also be retiring before long. She and Dr. Gregory Schlepp were the first two to join Dr. Lyons in the Lakewood practice as they transitioned to private practice from Madigan, also. Dr. Schlepp moved on to Spokane. William A. Pearce was here for a time before moving up north to Valley Medical Center. He was phenomenal, too. I’m sure you’ve seen many, many more changes as the practice has evolved over the years. Thanks for writing.
Thanks so much, Dr. Lyons, for so many years of excellent healthcare. Please enjoy your well-deserved retirement.
When I saw Dr. Lyons last week and he mentioned that he has seen “tens of thousands of patients” over the years, I tried to visualize that number. What an impact he has had on the Northwest! We are all so fortunate to have had him as our doctor. Thanks for writing.
Wow, with an opening like that how could I not click to read more! Well-written tribute to Dr Lyons.
Thank you for your comment, Will. It made me smile. I think so highly of Dr. Lyons, I could probably write a book about him! And not just him, but the overall outstanding quality of the people he has surrounded himself with in his practice. Yes, the other physicians. But also the nurses. One special memory is that back during the time when I was doing the medical transcription for their offices, I was living on the eastside of Tacoma. Late one afternoon I received a phone call from a nurse in the ER at St. Clare Hospital that my teenage son had just been brought in by paramedics. He had been in a rollover truck accident as the middle front seat passenger. He arrived in the ER strapped to a backboard and with his head and neck in a brace. The ER nurse told me that they did not yet know the full extent of his injuries, but for me to please HURRY and get to the hospital as quickly as I could. From where we lived at that time it would take almost 30 minutes for me to drive to St. Clare Hospital. I called Dr. Lyons’ office and told the sweet nurse who worked closely with him at that time. The practice was much smaller back then, so there was only one nurse. Their clinic was located in the medical building at the far end of the hospital complex. She didn’t hesitate to offer to help. Nor did she walk to the ER to check on my son. She RAN to the ER to check on my son herself. And she stayed at his side until I could get there! And then continued to stay with me to comfort me in that time of crisis.
Jayne only you could make a gi prep NOT sound like water boarding
Shelley, it was a piece of cake! Not only was the prep easy, but now they are only using pediatric-sized endoscopes/colonoscopes that are LESS than 1/2-inch in diameter. And they only use propofol, administered by IV, by a real anesthesiologist. I was ‘out’ in 3 seconds flat.
I’ve had these preps and procedures many times over the years and this was the easiest one, yet. What made it simpler was that they had me consume the first half of it and then wait several hours before finishing the second half. What a difference that made!
A nurse at the endoscopy center shared a story with me about patient who had never had the procedure done before and apparently didn’t understand what to expect from the prep. On the morning he arrived for the procedure, he told her that the “GoLYTELY gave him diarrhea, and he took 8 Imodium tablets to get it under control.” The procedure had to be canceled that day.
What a lovingly written tribute to a doctor that most people would probably fear for the field he’s in. All the more, what a wonderful doctor he must have been. Obviously very knowledgeable and humble. It must have been great to have been his patient.
Dr. Lyons had a way about him that conveyed genuine interest in each patient. It wasn’t an affect. He was sincere and caring. He made people feel at ease even when discussing things that were awkward or intimate, things they might have rarely or perhaps never shared with anyone else. He made people feel at ease and accepted no matter what their situation was — literally like they were family. He also had an upbeat sense of humor and conveyed a sense of optimism to patients. I wish you could have known him, too. I wish everyone could have a doctor like Dr. Lyons.