I recently ran into a friend at the Price Chopper, a local supermarket and frequent meeting place. “I love reading your blogs. Sorry I missed your community program last November on dealing with illness,” he said. “But you know me,” he continued, “I don’t want to talk about it.” (more…)

And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from… T.S. Elliot • The Four Quartets

A friend, who has been living with multiple myeloma for the past seven years, forwarded me the link to “Not Just a Death, a System Failure” (link below) which appeared in the February 2 issue of the New York Times. After reading the article I found myself catapulted back in time. As a member of the cancer center staff, albeit a medical humanist and not a healthcare provider, I attended weekly staff meetings.  (more…)

It ‘Tis the Season’…One of the gifts I received from a friend was a copy of The Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed. I’ve been known to ignore the rules of punctuation. My friend had asked me about my “penchant for the ellipses.” The book defines the ellipsis’ function as “indicating omitted words.”

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Reading the Bennington Banner story about our recent SpeakSooner community program “Building Your Team & Navigating The System” I was catapulted back in time. A few years ago we had been invited by a leading academic medical center to introduce what at that time was our new interactive communication tool—Difficult Conversations Toolkit (Video & Workbook)—to oncology faculty and fellows. (more…)

A WORD is dead / When it is said, / Some say. I say it just / Begins to live / That day. Emily Dickinson

How often does a word on the page stop you? And, if it does—do you find yourself leaving the page? (more…)

“When a doctor tells you ‘You’re sick,’ he’s not just diagnosing you; he is initiating a new chapter in the story of your life…”

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“Even though things inside you might be ripping you up…” Steve Williams, a patient featured in our Difficult Conversations video, tells us “…you put on a good face. For many people it’s hard to ask for help… (more…)

As a member of the Psychosocial Oncology Advisory Panel of Cancer.Net I received an e-mail announcing Dr. Lidia Schapira as the new Editor in Chief. (more…)

Who among us has not attended a professional conference and exchanged a slew of business cards with like-minded colleagues promising to be in touch? But how many of us actually follow up? (more…)

A journalist who had unearthed one of my blogs written three years ago recently contacted me. (more…)