Ilse Lipmann is an 85 year old woman who has been
my patient for 25+ years. Initially she brought her mother
who had severe macular degeneration. Now Mrs. Lipmann has
the same disease with vision in both eyes severely reduced
to hand movements. She is hypothyroid and hypertensive,
presently taking synthroid, pindolol, enalapril, and diltiazem.
Nonetheless her blood pressure is uncontrolled at 190/65.
She is unhappy with her physician, to whom she can't talk.
"I feel as if I were on the Magic Mountain. As soon as I
come into the doctor's office they put a thermometer in my mouth.

She has a paranoid streak, - but is one of my most intelligent
and sensitive patients. I am very fond of her. Her childhood was 
spent in Jena, where her father was a Communist labor organizer. 
In 1935 the family went to France, and in 1942, with the help of 
Georg Hanfmann, a distant relative, they moved to Cambridge. 
At the present time Mrs Lipmann lives modestly in a retirement 
home in Newtonville. She has Medicare and Medex.

This is the lady with whom I drove to the bank about a month ago
to withdraw a thousand dollars which she keeps in her mattress.
This morning she came because she was upset how she was treated
by her primary care physician. I told her I would talk to you
to ask you whether it would be practical for you to see her,
either for continuing care, or for referral to a primary care
physician in Newton. Please let me know, what, if anything, you
would like me to tell her.