Some of the commonest questions in medicine sound deceptively simple.“When is the baby due?” “How long have I got?”
People ask these questions as though there should be a clean answer. A date. A time. Something solid enough to write on a calendar.
Medicine, however, deals mostly in estimates.
Category: Communication
What Kubler-Ross still teaches us about dying
I still remember the quiet after I told a patient her cancer had spread. She looked at me for a long time, then said,” You must be wrong”. I wasn’t– but in that moment, denial wasn’t a failure to understand. It was protection. She needed a few days before she could face what the scans had already shown.
Why This Blog?
Birth and death are among the most profound issues of life. From a professional standpoint, dealing with end-of-life care, as well as dealing with obstetrical care have differences of course, but also many similarities. And for everybody, how these times in life affect us and those around us, are complex, difficult but often meaningful. In my musings, I would like to explore some of these complex thoughts and ideas in depth. Feel free to comment or add your ideas in the Contact page.
Whose life is it anyway?
Many times over my years in family practice, I sat with people as they navigated some of the most tender and difficult crossroads of their lives. A teenager facing an unplanned pregnancy, a cancer patient thinking about medical assistance in dying, the person wrestling with depression and suicidal thoughts—the question that kept surfacing was: Who’s life is it anyway?
Navigating the Medical Conversation: a Guide for Patients… and Professionals
It is difficult to absorb large amounts of information, especially when the news is bad. We tend to stop absorbing much after certain triggering words come up: “cancer”, abnormality”, etc. And all too often, professions use jargon, or words they might use everyday, but not understood by the general public.