"According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, when we are dying or have suffered a catastrophic loss, we all move through five distinct stages of grief. We go into denial, because the loss is so unthinkable, we can't imagine it's true. We become angry with everyone - angry with survivors, angry with ourselves. Then we bargain. We offer everything we have. We offer up our souls in exchange for just one more day. When the bargaining has failed and the anger is too hard to maintain, we fall into depression, despair, until finally we have to accept that we have done everything we can. We let go. We let go and move into acceptance."
We take our lives way too casually. Suddenly, one day you realise you're sick. It dawns upon you that you have very little time to do everything you wished to/planned to. You wish you could freeze time. And then it's too late. And just like that, you're gone.....
Hello everyone. I work in the department of Haem-Oncology at Columbia Asia hospital. In a matter of a week, I have seen a lot of different kind of cancers, head to toe. Right from the more common breast and lung cancers to pretty rare ones like mantle cell lymphoma. Though the cancers have varied, the response to a person's diagnosis when they heard it for the first time hasn't. Sometimes it hits you that despite being a doctor, there is no way to possibly alleviate everyone's suffering.
Back in the 90s, cancer was still unheard of. Diagnostic tests were minimal. Chemotherapy was expensive as hell. There were so many people who died even without being diagnosed. Come, the new millenium, things took a turn. Today, we have treatment for so many different types of cancers and we have new revelations and path-breaking research happening every single day. Yet, the stigma of having cancer is almost as bad as it used to be for tuberculosis if not worse. What we need to understand is that cancer is a diagnosis just like diabetes or hypertension. The number of people who die because of complications of diabetes and hypertension far outweigh those who die of cancer. Cancer does not mean the end of life. It just means that it needs to detected, treated and accepted in the right manner. We do have patients who have lived for 2 decades after initial diagnosis and who continue to maintain well. We should never stop believing in hope because miracles do happen every day!
Today, a 50 year old lady walked in to our chemotherapy unit. She was diagnosed with early stages of breast cancer. She was shocked and then she was suddenly crying. It dawned upon me that knowledge is not the most important thing about my job. Knowing how to console a person and believing that they can come out of their illness, or training them to be mentally strong about it in terminal cases, is perhaps the single thing that differentiates a "good" doctor from a "mediocre" one.
I feel so lucky to be working in a setup where I am not only learning to effectively communicate with my patients but also learning to be a better person in general. That's my learning curve.
“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.”
