Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

What Doctors Can Learn From Patients in the Health Care Reform Debate

The following is my guest post published today on Dr. Kevin Pho's popular KevinMD.com medical blog:

Two things are missing from the bustling conversations on health care reform jamming the Internet highway. First, where among the finger-pointing anecdotes and critical analyses of our “broken” American medical system are the stories and discussions of all that is right? Second, where is our sense of hope?

Caregiver Stress

Healthy Survivors and their caregivers learn about the signs and symptoms that may signal a medical or emotional problem that needs attention from the patient's healthcare team, and they learn what to do when they detect such signs or symptoms.

Healthy Survivors and their caregivers also learn the signs and symptoms of caregiver stress.

Locked In and Free

Sometimes knowledge of another person's challenge helps keep one's own in proper perspective. In this month's Cornell Alumni Magazine, Brad Herzog chronicles the story of an alumnus who gives new meaning to the term, Healthy Survivor.

Variations on a Theme by Niebuhr

Healthy Survivors learn to balance serenity and courage in healing ways. But serenity is not the only emotional state that Healthy Survivors balance with courage, as reflected in these Variations on a Theme by Niebuhr:

Chasm of a Cure

A newly diagnosed patient asks, "Doctor, can you cure me?" Elsewhere, a patient in remission asks, "So am I cured?" These patients are shocked and mystified if their oncologists hem and haw. "What's your problem?" they think. ''It's not as if we're talking about sex."

Healthy Hang Up

Since 1990 I've gone through 9 separate courses of cancer treatment in order to survive. Now I'm risking it all. For what? A phone call?

Glamour's "Real Stories"

Listening to the local news can be an exercise in resisting despair. Most stories focus on the horrible things people have done to each other in the preceding few days. If you are feeling the least bit discouraged about the future of our society or the world, I have a suggestion:

Music to My Ears: N.E.D.

I just enjoyed listening to a CD, entitled N.E.D. Now I want everyone to know about the music, the musicians, and the mission.

Where Cancer Progress is Rare, One Man Says No

Dr. Richard Pazdur has guards posted outside his meeting room to protect him and the other members of his committee. Who are they protecting him against? Patient advocates, some of whom call him a murderer. 

Staging the Aging When Cancer Strikes

In the first week of medical school, one of my professors said, "Over the next four years, you will not learn how to treat diseases and injuries! No, you will learn how to treat people with diseases and injuries."

Why Me?

Since my diagnosis in 1990, have I ever asked, “Why me?” Sure I did. But not the way you might think.

Post-treatment Emotions

"Congratulations! Your treatments are over." One of the surprises of survivorship is the flood of unpleasant feelings that can arise after the confetti shower and the round of good-byes.

Dolphins at Play

Once again we are overdue for a microvacation from the serious side of Healthy Survivorship. So I invite you to enjoy this 2 minute video. May it serve as a reminder to all Healthy Survivors that simple steps can set you on a path to living as fully as possible and to finding happiness in a storm:

Hope Poem

What is hope?

Wasting and Losing Time

How much time do you waste every day?

What Doesn't Kill You

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." What does this quote from Frierich Nietzsche mean to survivors who are going through difficult treatments or recoveries?

No News is No News

Pastor Carl Wilton recently blogged about test results that never get to the patient (and sometimes not even to the physician who ordered the test). It stirred memories of my medical practice.