I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard patients say that they didn’t know what questions to ask. Others have said that they were too intimidated to question a doctor. I recall George Lewis, who appeared in our video Voices from the Lived World of Illness saying, “You hear but you don’t comprehend. A day or so later you wish you would have asked questions.” In the same video Pat Barr states, “Doctors take silence as comprehension.”
A Medical Humanist's Notes
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In my July 7 blog Patient Resource Consultant, I shared the circumstances in which I found myself unexpectedly working in cancer care. In essence, Pat Barr, a breast cancer patient and a good friend, convinced the Bennington cancer center’s medical director to hire a patient advocate and volunteered me. Reluctantly, I accepted but changed the job title to “patient resource consultant,” which more accurately described how I envisioned my role.
March Together
Upon reviewing SpeakSooner: A Patient’s Guide to Difficult Conversations, Dr. Joe O’Donnell, former Dean at Dartmouth Medical School and Chief of Oncology at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, said, “ With a tool like the Center for Communication in Medicine’s Difficult Conversations Guide, we can get on the same page as our patients, but even better, march together into a frightening future, more aligned with each other and able to support the chaotic journeys that having cancer brings.”
I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
In my blog “With Great Difficulty or More Fully” (July 24, 2021), I referenced an article written by Dr. Ira Byock in which he discussed how doctors faced the end of life. Whether it was coincidence or not, only a few days after reading Dr. Byock’s article, a friend sent a poem by Dawna Markova (Awakin.org) titled “I Will Not Die an Unlived Life.” I’d like to share it with you.
With Great Difficulty or More Fully
A few days ago, I came across a folder on my computer that contained a New York Times article (June 30, 2016) titled “At the End of Life, What Would Doctors Do?” by palliative care physician Dr. Ira Byock. The article explored what doctors think when facing death, referencing Dr. Ken Murray’s online essay “How Doctors Die,” which offered a personal observation that doctors who recommended late-stage treatments may not prescribe the same for themselves.
Patient Resource Consultant
In digging through files, I discovered a job description of my first position in the world of cancer care. Memories flooded in, including how I initially refused to accept the job. Let me tell you how the door was opened.
Filling a Void
Most of us recognize the challenges healthcare institutions face in balancing budgets in a time of escalating costs. So, how do hospital administrators decide what projects or services should be funded and what are expendable? It seems that in most instances the basic principle of “income producing” is what determines what stays or goes.
Gordian Knot
The other day a dear friend Rachel Hadas emailed to tell me that she “loves the intuitive wisdom, in cutting through Gordian Knots, that I demonstrate in my blogs.” I liked the sound of what she was saying but wanted to be sure that I understood the meaning of her words. So, as I often do, I looked up the definition of Gordian Knot. You see, Rachel is a renowned poet and professor of English Literature at Rutgers University and her metaphors are chosen with care.
Bridging the Gap
I recently discovered an Associated Press article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2003. It was like reaching into a time capsule, which brought back so many memories of our co-founder the late Pat Barr and the early days of working as a medical humanist. Below is the article.
In a Word
I have always been interested in definitions. What frequently comes to mind is what Aristotle said, “A definition is a phrase signifying a things essence.”