I write because I am fortunate to be surrounded by a healthcare team comprised of individual providers who have partnered with me to optimize my health and wellbeing; providers whom I trust and respect as experts in their respective fields and who trust and respect me as an expert in me; providers who hear me because they choose to listen; providers who don’t take my questions as a professional affront, but as an opportunity; providers who acknowledge their limits and know their resources; providers who are invested in me.
I write because my healthcare experience has been for the most part exceptional, and I want others facing similar health circumstances to have what I have worked hard to cultivate among my team.
I write because I find myself wondering if that is even possible given the all too common divide that can develop within the provider-patient relationship and the seeming unwillingness of both parties to listen one to the other.
I write because of tragedies like the death of Jess Jacobs at the hands of a “not my problem” mentality found within medical education, and sadly, medicine at large. Lest we think Jess’ case is an isolated incident, consider with me Paul Kalanithi, renowned neurosurgeon and author of When Breath Becomes Air, who wrote of an encounter with a resident in the final stages of his lung cancer,
“I could see in Brad’s eyes I was not a patient, I was a problem: a box to be checked off; an obligation to me meant adding another thing to his to do list.”