Dear Dr. Bergman,

I hope this email will reach you, whether it be through your secretary or nurse. But I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you on behalf of my family for all that you have done in the past two weeks for my mother, Roberta Aukes.

Throughout the years my entire family has tried to discuss Mom's health problems, namely her weight, with her. She quite often took this attempts as personal attacks, so quite often discussion about it was set to the back burner to keep the peace.

Then, a year ago, when I was pregnant with my twins, I was put on light bedrest for the last month and a half of the pregnancy. It was the first time I got even a taste of the misery my mother must be in. Although I'm sure my discomfort was only a fraction of what hers must be, I noticed how it hurt to move and how the slightest activity put me out of breath. My joints ached, I couldn't sleep and the simplest of tasks was now a chore.

My boys arrived healthy, and when Mom and Dad came to see them at my house, she struggled so terribly to get up the steps into my house that I decided that peace be damned, I was going to start to pressure her more actively about her health so that she might see her grandkids grow.

Mom has been morbidly obese since I was quite young. People in general do not know how to behave around someone like my mom. They either point and laugh or just try to ignore her entirely.

That was why I was so impressed with how your staff handled themselves. Mom was treated like a human being, instead of someone who just let herself go. She is terribly scared of where her condition has taken her, and your willingness to answer questions and shoot from the hip was so refreshing for a family that has had terrible luck with finding answers.

To make a long story short, Dr. Bergman, you got the ball rolling and did more for her in two weeks in terms of finding out what might be wrong than her doctor in Waterloo has done for her in over 10 years. I can't express enough how much my mother and my family appreciate your work and your attention to detail.

I knew you had to be at least decent when Tiane Meester, as well as her mother, endorsed you as someone who would listen and help in any way you could. But you have confirmed their praise tenfold.

In the future when I hear one of my friends or family say they are looking for a cosmetic surgeon, for whatever, whether it be reconstruction of some sort or even just to look better in a bikini, I hope you won't mind if I drop your name and tell them what a wonderful doctor you are, as well as how wonderful your staff is.

And if I ever save enough pennies, I hope to call you to have some of the aftermath of my twin pregnancy tucked back where it belongs. (haha)

Please extend our sincere gratitude to Kim as well. Over the past years, in and out of hospitals, I've found that there are certain types of nurses, the ones who care about their patients and love their job and the ones who don't care a bit and manhandle a patient to put in their eight hours. Kim is most definitely the kind that cares, and she is an asset to your practice.

Thanks again for all you've done.
The family of Roberta Aukes
Anita D. Aukes-Burkett