Cancer is everyone's battle.

Before I started to write this entry I felt like I wanted to stop writing about patients with cancer.  Just because it makes me very sad and it is wrenching for me and the family when I explain plans and prognosis to patients who present with cancer at a very advanced stage.

But I guess you can't force yourself to not think and not feel in medicine, it seems like a bad idea.

I really connected with a patient today, and it was amazing how much of a change I saw in their comfort level once they were on the actual hospital floor compared to the crowded emergency department.

I actually saw the patient smile several times and thank me and the team so many times, it was really touching.

You have to realize that people with advanced diseases appreciate being reached out to so much, especially if they are from out of the country.  I told them we'd do everything we can to make sure they are comfortable and that we'd take the best care of them: not in some kind of forced, hollow, answering machine way you see a lot of people do, but the patient's pain and suffering was so very palpable that you could tell everyone in the room was feeling and thinking something to a high degree

Before I started to write this entry I felt like I wanted to stop writing about patients with cancer.  Just because it makes me very sad and it is wrenching for me and the family when I explain plans and prognosis to patients who present with cancer at a very advanced stage.

But I guess you can't force yourself to not think and not feel in medicine, it seems like a bad idea.

I really connected with a patient today, and it was amazing how much of a change I saw in their comfort level once they were on the actual hospital floor compared to the crowded emergency department.

I actually saw the patient smile several times and thank me and the team so many times, it was really touching.

You have to realize that people with advanced diseases appreciate being reached out to so much, especially if they are from out of the country.  I told them we'd do everything we can to make sure they are comfortable and that we'd take the best care of them: not in some kind of forced, hollow, answering machine way you see a lot of people do, but the patient's pain and suffering was so very palpable that you could tell everyone in the room was feeling and thinking something to a high degree.