I had been to the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic earlier that evening due to severe lower back and hip pain. I was in too much pain to drive, so my partner brought me in. The doctor there asked a few brief questions, lightly examined my back, gave me a pathology request form, and told me to follow up with my GP the next week. He didn’t offer any pain relief or explanations, just advised me to go to the emergency department to rule out anything serious.

Feeling completely defeated, I sat crying in the car park, unsure of what to do next. I didn’t want to waste hospital time, but I didn’t feel safe or heard. I told my partner to go home, thinking I’d be waiting in the ED for hours anyway, and I walked the 250 metres there alone, still in severe pain and emotionally exhausted. To my surprise, I was called in after just 15 minutes by Michael Jacques, a nurse practitioner, who completely changed the course of my care.

Michael took me into a quiet room and sat with me for over 30 minutes. He asked thoughtful, detailed questions, not just about this episode of pain, but about my broader medical history. He made me feel genuinely heard, not rushed, and treated me like someone whose symptoms deserved time, curiosity, and care.

Without me even mentioning it, Michael independently arrived at a conclusion I had been quietly considering for months: that my symptoms and history might align with an autoimmune condition, or possibly hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, hEDS. He took that possibility seriously and explained it in detail, what it could mean, what further testing could show, and what the path forward might look like. He ordered additional autoimmune tests on the spot and helped me understand how other symptoms I’ve experienced in the past could be connected.

It was the first time I felt like someone was finally putting the puzzle pieces together. Throughout, he explained every step of his thinking and every action he was taking, why certain tests were ordered, what he was going to discuss with the supervising doctor, and what treatment options might follow depending on the results. He even drew my blood himself, despite my difficult veins, gave me a urine test to rule out infection, and prescribed pain relief with an anti-nausea tablet after I told him I react poorly to medications.

I had come in expecting nothing more than a scan and to be sent home. But instead, I left with a sense of direction, real answers, and hope. Michael made me feel like I was the only patient in the department. He was calm, thoughtful, clinically sharp, and kind. He took my symptoms seriously, my history seriously, and me seriously. He provided a level of holistic, person-centered care that stayed with me long after I left the ED. In a moment when I felt completely alone, he made me feel like someone finally saw the whole picture and cared enough to do something about it.