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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“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…)

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

In my previous blog, Dosing Hope and Reality, I responded to Dr. Gawande’s quest to help patients (more…)

Two years ago, I posted a blog, Inviting Doctors to Tell Difficult Truths about this very subject (more…)

Like many proactive patients, you might already bring pen and paper to your doctors’ appointments so you can take notes. (more…)

“Doctors have a hard job. Not everybody wants to have these conversations.” This insight comes from (more…)

Empathy.  It’s something all of us would agree is a valuable—and often missing—component of care.  So when (more…)