The title of one of my previous blogs in and of itself posed an important question: “What Is A Good Patient?” How one defines a “good patient” varies, as does their reason for wanting to be one. During my tenure as a Medical Humanist at Southwestern Vermont’s Regional Cancer Center I witnessed the difficult […]

“We need to raise our voices a little more, even as they say to us, ‘This is so uncharacteristic of you.’ Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone.” MitsuyYamada After each of our SpeakSooner community education programs I would ask myself, “How did this program differ from the one before? And, what was the […]

I don’t know who it was that said poetry is defined as a language writing itself out of a difficult situation. What I know is illness is one of those situations. 

When I was first diagnosed,” she said, “I didn’t feel I needed your help. I know how to get what I need—I’m a nurse, we speak the same language.”

  “Variability is the law of life…no two bodies are alike, no two individuals react and behave alike under the conditions which we know as disease.” – William Osler, MD In my previous blog I noted, “patients’ want to be good patients,” which prompted several people to ask, “What is a good patient?”