Category: Patient Care

Reconciliation

Posted on by momilhem

I shared an email I received from a patient’s wife in clinic today. That patient had passed away a few years back. We were all sitting in clinic going about our daily business. The email asked me to say “hi” to everyone. I had forgotten about it but then someone reminded me of him. So I pulled it out and I shared it out loud.  It tugged at us and told us “you are always in our hearts”. As I was reading I was unaware that Wendee my nurse had started to cry, she sobbed “don’t they know that they never leave us too?”. Everyone around me was silent, and I said “I think they do know”. The email was gracious, magnificent if you asked me. She was telling me that she loved my blog and that she felt her husband beside her as she read it, that his children, when they grew older, would read it too. She thanked me for the years I gave them together and how she held us in her heart, of how we are always on her mind.

I take the bus home on occasions. It was a strange ride for me today. I could not shake the feeling of this email, it stayed with me. I had read this alone and it had a different effect. It was Wendee’s words that were echoing in the hollows of my mind. I stared at the advertisements that were plastered on the bus. One said in bold letters “have you ever saved a life?” My thoughts floated away, I remembered a younger version of myself talking to this man as a brother and confidant. I remembered our bond, our relationship. Paul Coelho a Brazilian lyricist says “When a person really desires something, the entire universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.” This was this man to me. He was a pragmatic man that understood his fate, but he realized a dream that I could not possibly understand. Here was his wife thanking me for years I gave. Yet I felt I lost the battle. The truth is no I did not “save” a life.

The bus stops close to my home but a walk away. I crunched through the cold, walking to my house. Thoughts and images of my interaction with him. I miss my friend. What a man he was. A man of my age, his wife still thankful, still appreciative, still supportive. “Do they know they never leave us too?” And I reconciled that disconnect that I have. I felt I failed, and she felt I won. Simple exchanges from one human to the next make a difference far greater than one can expect. I really appreciate the kindness, in helping me feel a loss is a victory nonetheless. 

Thank you.

Mo

Inconvenience

Posted on by momilhem

Last night it seems one of the pipes connecting our water heater froze in our home. What an inconvenience! Stranded I was unable to go to work this morning. Commitments needed to be canceled, meetings moved and rescheduled, I disappointed many but this is important, we have no water in the house and I needed to stay home and wait for someone who understands pipes to come and tell me what is going on. I needed a specialist who could help me evaluate and manage my problem. But I had to change my plans and my day is not going as I had wanted it to.

When my patients are on chemotherapy (chemo), they are at the mercy of the cancer, the side-effects, their blood counts and the specialist. What I am feeling now is an understatement to how it must feel for them to be stranded with a situation that they have no control over. My patients make plans and have lives outside of their cancer that they really do not want to interrupt to be hospitalized and receive chemo. When they come all prepared to be admitted for their chemo, sometimes they do not get what they want. I have many a times delayed a chemo regimen and offset plans that they had. I see how frustrated they become and hear them say “but this means I am going to miss the wedding now”.  This is an aspect of my job I do not enjoy. Most patients receiving chemo are healthy and live active lives in between cycles, and I have stressed that they don’t let the cancer rule their lives, and that they should plan and we will work around their plans. That is easier said than done. Cancer interferes, ruining moments and events and it does not have a schedule.

In delivering chemotherapy to a patient an oncologist will try to stay on track but what patients don’t know is we sometimes have “wiggle room” as I like to call it. We can add a day or subtract a day to get things to accommodate some plans that my patients have. So when they come back for an unanticipated admission or are delayed for things beyond their control I do enjoy giving back “wiggling” their plans back into their lives. The plumber said he would be here at 9am but showed up at 10:30am. The weather is bad today, the roads slick, and cars in ditches, but he came through. He has taken up half my day, but he came, and now the hot water is back. I do strive to ensure that all my patients driving through their bad storms get to where they need to in the end. While the outcome can be as bright as simply fixing a problem to help a patient reach a goal that they wanted – it does make for a better day.

Mo

A confession to a friend

Posted on by momilhem

Dear Hannah,

Where does one start to talk to you? I guess simply saying happy birthday might be the easiest place. Last week Iowa read about you and it was refreshing to see how they were saying we miss you.

I remember when I first met you; I kicked your family out of the room so you and I could talk alone. Something tells me you liked that, and you felt I wanted you to tell me what you wanted from me as your physician. I acknowledged your adulthood and maturity. You had grown too fast while facing your cancer. That day we formed our bond of trust. I am honored to know that your family shared with me that you valued what I had to say. I felt very deeply about you and I was hurt badly the day you left us.

I read Molly’s blog with a deep admiration of her courage and how she wanted to grow.   I mustered up the courage to talk to you in a letter sharing my thoughts that have needed to come out. It is my way of closure. You stretched my heart to a place it had never been, your search for hope in me made me realize how we believed in each other. Knowledge of things sometimes makes it harder to watch what actually happens. I confess that I struggled to tell you in part due to how I felt. Your amazing spirit, the love of your family gave me the strength to do so.

I remember the love around you. The fear, the kindness and the respect. I remember your quiet demeanor.  On the day I knew it would happen, I stood silently beside your bed. I fought back my tears as I watched your shallow breaths. I sent you a million prayers in my heart, my eyes talked to you as I stood there in my own language and I said goodbye. Something I have done to so many who have allowed me the privilege of being a part of it.  

Perhaps I am realizing now that I can talk to you every day. Through those who love you and care.  

Dear Hannah with love from Mo.

 

Fragile

Posted on by momilhem

It was a slow day in clinic. Time was plentiful. Patients trickled in to be seen. I watched my practice in slow motion. I helped a patient make a better decision about their care. I contemplated on how fragile our health really is; on how symptoms dominate our thoughts and how having good health truly makes a difference to how we live our life. 

Cancer can be very silent in our bodies with vague unnoticed symptoms. It eats at our vitality and makes us weaker though we may not feel it until it is too late. It attacks us physically, emotionally and socially. It is difficult to convince a patient who feels well to accept a therapy that itself would make them feel worse. It’s a very delicate state to explain to a patient their vulnerability and how this disease could end their lives if they do not accept the therapy at hand. I find it frightening at the number of choices there are to navigate and how little time we have to explain rationally to our patients the best options they have.

What happens when the therapy we have to offer really does not have an impact on their lives or wellbeing? Should it be offered? How do you explain with all the progress that is hyped in the media that science for this one patient lags in finding a treatment that helps them get through their ordeal?

Today I felt I had that time, because things happened slowly. It was a refreshing look at care where as things moved slowly it felt like I could see more detail and focus more on my patient. It was like watching the replay of a touchdown.  I have always felt that healing is a process that needs time on its side.

Each patient as an individual needs to be handled with the utmost care, like they were a vase that could easily break. Perhaps that is how it should always be.

 Mo

A Good Laugh

Posted on by momilhem

Let’s all laugh. It’s infectious, heartwarming and welcomed. At any time during a conversation. Throw a joke, a comment that grabs attention, a statement that has everyone doing the same action. Laughing with our hearts together as one. Today I was pleasantly taken by surprise. I walked into a room with the most delightful patient. She was on fire. Exploding with one comment after another like she was doing a standup comedy or as she said it “I’d prefer to sit down”. It was my turn to laugh. She had me reeling with laughter till I almost cried. My turn to be entertained. I loved her spirit, her joy, her courage to laugh, to face her cancer head on and to live life fully. She told me of her preparations for her holidays, of her family that was coming of the adventures she will have with cooking, food and sleeping bags.

I needed that laugh. It removes my callous nature when faced with the extremes of this disease. Like a massage removing the tense conversations after a long day. Helping me fall asleep relieved and relaxed. Yes it makes a difference to us all in the field. To be able to laugh with you about such an ordeal. For you to see that as a way to connect and share your thoughts and secrets. You amaze me. Your insecurities and our inefficiencies the food for our amusement. But you make it happen. You add the spark. You allow me to build on the fun of it. And you share with ease your feelings about how when faced with such an adversary that you laugh. I have only you to thank for that.

I love it when I was told “I’m 3 years disease free now, I am glad you have me to feel good about your day”. And I do feel good about that. That you all are out there, showing me the positives of our fight; that you exist. It’s like you better exist, how else could I be who I am? So I urge you, make fun of me, laugh with your heart, share with your smiles and come together as one. And if you really need to just give me a punch, you know the one I promise; I would never punch back. It’s my way of sharing with you the ability to overcome your greatest fear, of being left alone to deal with this disease.

You are definitely not alone. You are family, thank you for making me find laughter even in the midst of the hardest time. For that I hope you soar, high and you roll in laughs as you fight your battle against something that can never take that away from who you are.

Mo