All dressed up and nowhere to write…

I’ve got something important to say.

On second thought, I am not so sure about that. But here in a blog format I may be able to share some of my thoughts on practicing medicine as well as thoughts on being a patient myself.

Those are two different things, you know, the practice of medicine and the treatment of patients.

The practice of medicine is the erudite-lecture-hall-scientific-paper stuff. It’s the 10K-foot level looking down. It’s the hypothetical and the “what do you do in this scenario?”. It’s the stuff people think is fascinating about “being a doctor.”

Treating patients is something altogether different. It’s the look the patient in the eye and tell him it’s going to sting a bit and then watch the face grimace in discomfort. It’s enduring the silence after giving a cancer diagnosis. It’s the get out of bed a 2 am and go to the ER. It’s the middle of the night smell and sound of a hospital ward. It’s gurneys and seizures and vomit. It’s the stuff you can’t turn away from but can’t stand to watch.

Both are necessary. A doctors’ time in the trenches make us humble and human. But space and time to reflect and enough detachment from another’s suffering is required because we are not God, and it’s hard to understand His ways.

So here are my unimportant thoughts about important things…

TB