Dr. Glenn Welcker's patients - all 10,000 of them - are going to miss him.
After much soul searching - and thousands of hours away from his growing children -Welcker has decided to discontinue his primary care practice, Hampton Family Practice, effective Dec. 1.
"I have enjoyed practicing medicine, especially with regard to knowing each and every one of my patients, but I have decided to make this change so that I can be more of a father and a husband to my family," Welcker said in a recent letter to his patients. "The practice of medicine has been a labor of love for me, one that is hard to discontinue."
Welcker, a Chapin native, has been keeping Hampton County folks healthy since he became a staff physician at Harrison Peeples Health Care Center in 1994, and opened his own practice in 1997. His office staff estimates that he currently has over 10,000 patients that he sees at least semi-regularly.
But for quite some time, Welcker has been balancing his labor of love with the misery of missing his family. And he had been unsuccessful in his efforts to find a partner in his practice.
"I love what I do, I'm leaving a job that I love, and this is the hardest decision I've ever made. I've prayed about it a lot, and the Lord is probably tired of hearing my prayers."
Welcker is bidding farewell to his solo practice to spend more time with his wife, Charlotte, and his sons, Preston, 13, and Wilder, 4.
"I kind of pushed my wife and children to the side for too many years, and I even had a patient tell me one time that I had my priorities mixed up. When I see my 13-year old start to grow up and need a father, I decided it's time to spend more time at home. I'm hoping to get more time with my kids and my wife, and get my priorities in line."
The life of a primary care physician in a small town - where doctors are few and far between - is not an easy life for a family man. A typical work day for Welcker starts at 4:15 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. or later. He arrives at his office by 5 a.m., does paperwork until 6:30, sees patients at Hampton Regional Medical Center until 8, and starts seeing his own patients around 8:30. When the office closes around 6 p.m., he has about three hours of paperwork (that has to be done by a physician) to look forward to before heading home.
He averages between 76 and 80 hours a week. During flu season Welcker could see as many as 80 patients a day, and on some days he doesn't even go home but stays in his apartment at the back of the practice.
During his 17 years in Hampton County, Welcker has built quite a bond with his patients and put on quite a few pounds thanks to their cooking.
"I can tell you the top five pound cake makers in Hampton County, but I won't because that would illicit a fight. We've got some good cooks in Hampton County. It's a good town, and there are a lot of good people here."
Welcker will begin a new career in the Emergency Department at Hampton Regional Medical Center, where he will work eight 24-hour shifts a month, leaving plenty of family time. He will also continue to serve as the Emergency Medical Control Physician for Hampton County EMS.
Hampton Family Practice will be purchased by HRMC's Coastal Plains Physician Associates located at 595 Carolina Ave. West, Varnville.
"I've had a lot of good patients, a lot of caring patients, and I couldn't walk away and leave these patients stranded."
Welcker is also pleased that Coastal Plains has attracted some promising new doctors to this area., like Dr. Danny Smith.
"I like his personality and I think he would get along with my patients."
Welcker will continue seeing weight loss patients on a limited basis (every Tuesday) at his present location until he finds a smaller office.
Many of his staff will stay on for an extended period to help with the weight loss program as well as with the transition of patients and their medical records. Welcker's staff includes Libby Skinner, Alayne McGuire, Liz Loadholt, Trisha Beard, Janice West, Linda Youmans, Jacob Terry, Brenda Davis, Lisa Ball, and Jill Knight.
"One of the hardest things to walk away from is my staff. They're like family. It's sad, but I can tell you more about their children and grandchildren than my own."

Loyal staff says goodbye
If you want to know the true measure of a man, talk to the people who work for him. Alayne McGuire was with him as an office manager when he opened his practice on June 9, 1997, and worked with him three years prior to that at the Harrison Peeples Health Care Center.
"He is a great doctor, but he was more than a doctor to his patients, he was a friend and I know we're going to miss him," she said. "He cares and worries about his patients. Many a day he has sat in here after hours and expressed his concern over certain patients."
Libby Skinner has been his receptionist/medical records clerk for 13 years.
"It's sad to see him go, but I'm happy for him and his family that he is going to get to enjoy his family some. It is going to be bittersweet. We have had a family relationship, and it is going to be hard to go our separate ways. He will be terribly missed. I think the whole town is going to miss him."
Skinner and McGuire also said they would miss the patients they have grown close to over the years.
"We've laughed with them and cried with them over the years," Skinner added. "We've shared their lives."
Linda Youmans has been a registered nurse for 23 years, with the last six spent with Welcker.
"He offered me a job, and I haven't regretted a day of it. He's the best boss in the world. He's been a great boss, a good friend, and a great teacher. He's always put everybody else ahead of himself and his family. He is caring and compassionate and 100 percent for his patients and makes everyone feel like he's family to them. But I am so excited for him to be able to spend some time with his boys and his wife."
But working for Welcker is not without its perils. The doc believes in practical jokes to lighten up the painfully long days, like the time he tricked Youmans into being the only staff member to dress up for Halloween. Or the time he moved her Volvo and she thought it had been stolen. Or the time someone brought a pet snake into the office. Or the worn-out joy buzzer he used on staff and patients alike.
A USC Gamecock fan, the doctor made Tiger Stew for his staff one year when Carolina beat Clemson, but had to drive around with a giant orange Tiger paw on his car the next year when the tide turned.
"Every day up here, even on bad days, we still laugh," Skinner said.