Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

Hope, or Grief?

Yesterday's post discusses a study in which patients who are told their colostomy is temporary are less happy than those who believe it is permanent. I'd like to suggest an alternative explanation to "holding on to hope."

Happier If They Give Up Hope

A recent study led the primary author to conclude, "Holding on to hope may not make patients happier as they deal with chronic illness or diseases." If so, this shoots a hole in my knowledge-hope-action approach to Healthy Survivorship. What now?

A Better Bone Marrow Biopsy

A bone marrow biopsy (BMB) is the same concept as a blood draw (technically, a "blood biopsy"), the difference being that veins are a whole lot easier to get into with a needle than the center of a bone.

A Halloween Lesson

Last night a man named "B" greeted his first trick-or-treater. B wore blue scrubs, a face mask and a stethoscope. His mom sat in a wheelchair, a blood pressure cuff on her arm and oxygen tubing connecting her to an oxygen tank.

Just in Case

What do you call someone who is the opposite of a procrastinator?

Silence

A first year medical student, Felicity, commented on my Time for Talk post: "The hard thing as we learn to interview patients...is to be comfortable with silence. It feels kind of awkward..."

The Toughest Stage

Which is most challenging: The day you are diagnosed with cancer? The day you begin treatment? The days in the middle of treatment? The days after you complete treatment and begin your recovery?

Time to Talk

Often the most time-consuming part of a patient evaluation is eliciting the so-called "history of the present illness." 

"Disease" or "Illness"?

What's the difference between a disease and an illness?  In medical contexts, plenty.

Did My Being an "MD" Help or Hurt?

Ever since the 1991 release of the movie, The Doctor, people have asked me, "Did being a doctor make it easier or more difficult to be a patient?"