Mr. Katz sat on the edge of his chair in my clinic room, teetering as if he might fall at any moment. He was 86-years-old, and his thin body had become weak and tired. But his angry eyes, like a petulant child, stared at me.
“Doc, you should have just let me die,” he said to break the ice.
I had just discharged Mr. Katz earlier in the week from the hospital. …
How physical therapy gave an elderly patient hope
One tired early morning, during my residency, I had been up all night in the ICU with a sick patient. Exhausted I sat in the cafeteria for a quick breakfast before rounds with my attending physician. I was explaining to her how I couldn’t leave my patients side I was so worried. She looked at me like Obi-Wan Kenobi: “The sign of a good doctor is when you can’t go to sleep at night worrying about …
Separating work from home life makes for happier doctors
As a doctor, I have never really believed in any type of significant mind-body connection. Of course stress is related to depression or even heart disease. But I never really thought that we as humans were capable of controlling our bodies responses to disease. I don’t think I’ll ever believe that it is possible to heal yourself from a serious disease like cancer from thoughts.
But recently, I have had a …
Patients who pass quickly once they have given up on life
A Swedish sociologist Lars Tornstam describes this by asking what a 10 year old would say if we asked him what it would be like to be 20. It would be awful to him. There would be no play time. There would be no summer vacation. He would have to get a job! But at twenty he would look back at the age of 10 and say: “There’s no way …
Why do we fear old age so much?
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