Another holiday season has ended. And thank goodness!
Don’t get me wrong. It is not that I don’t like the holidays. I do enjoy parties, spending time with family, drinking eggnog laced with brandy and freshly-ground nutmeg, nesting before the fire with a stack of DVDs. It is enjoyable to see my clinic get decorated by the medical assistants. And the holidays always bring back fond memories from my childhood growing up on the Kansas plains.
Oh, when the tables turn! Over the last few months, I have spent more time on the receiving end of of health care than any prior period in my 57 years. This has helped open my eyes, jostle my brain, stir my heart, and put my role as a deliverer of health care into a new perspective.
I had a eureka moment recently. It came after what was probably the ten thousandth time a patient responded to my brightly warm greeting, “How are you today?” with a curmudgeonly, “I’m getting older. How do you think I am!”
Aha, I thought, now I see. So what if it took 22 years of practice to reach enlightenment. Wisdom was now within my grasp this fine Tuesday morning. But the understanding gained in that moment provided me scant comfort. It actually heightened my angst, obliterated endorphins, and caused my catechol levels to surge.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie to deep for tears.
— William Wordsworth
Three decades with Kaiser Permanente. Half my life! The concept is both amazing and sobering. It is hard to fathom it was 30 years ago when I walked through the door and signed on the dotted line. After so much time, it is natural to pause and reflect. How did the years pass and what did I learn? What follows is not a comprehensive assessment, but rather random thoughts and reflections on my experience being a physician. I write these observations primarily for myself. If any of these musings resonate with you, well and good, but there are no lessons here. Just some notes from the practice.
What appears before us, in the exam room, in the hospital, in the OR, is an amazing human tapestry. We see people at their worst and their best. When they are most vulnerable and when they show incredible strength. When they are in the depths of despair and when they are enjoying some of the happiest moments of their lives. It is an amazing experience. Who else in society has the luxury to participate in people’s lives so intimately? And this is how we make a living! Wow.
It important the physicians and all health care workers understand the words our patients use. Given the rapid evolution of language, this can be a dodgy endeavor. In the interests of updating this field of inquiry, I would like to review how the vernacular has evolved over the last several years. Each of the following statements was made by my patients.
One of the reasons I love taking care of patients is they know how to use real words, speak plainly, and leave the mince for the pies. Each of the following statements were really and truly made by patients I was seeing.