Wendy Harpham on Healthy Survivorship

A Father's Unrelenting Battle

I just read A Father's Love: One Man's Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home. Why?

Partly because a good friend of mine is a family lawyer. Anything that gives me insight into her world helps me be a better friend.

2011 Cancer Resource Guide

Cure in association with the American Cancer Society has published a superb booklet for people with cancer: the 2011 edition of their Cancer Resource Guide.

Explaining a Doctor's Impatience

My June 20th post shares the dilemma of a patient whose long-time doctor disagreed with her assessment of the best treatment for her and cut their conversation short. Why might her doctor have done this?

Healing after a Doctor Visit Gone Awry - Part II

There is no one right way to obtain knowledge, nourish hope or take action. So, too, there is no one right way to heal a rift between you and your physician.

But there are good ways -- and maybe even a best way -- for you and your physician. What follows are my suggestions to the patient who, at her last doctor visit, raised her voice in frustration:

Correction: Healing After a Doctor Visit Gone Awry

Not sure how it happened, but my last post -- Healing After Doctor Visit Gone Awry -- got jumbled when I posted it.

Luckily I still had the spell-check copy on an open Word document. Click here to read what I intended to say!

 

Healing After A Doctor Visit Gone Awry

Although I didn't have a magic answer for the patient in my last post who emailed me about her doctor visit gone awry, I was able to offer her some thoughts about moving forward as a Healthy Survivor.

When a Doctor Visit Goes Badly

In response to the current blog thread, a reader emailed me with her dilemma. With her permission, I will present her problem. [I have taken the liberty of changing some identifying information.]

When the Patient is the Expert - Part II

Nobody knows more about a patient than that patient, right? Well, sometimes.

When the Patient is the Expert

In response to my June 10th column, one commentor wrote: "The doctor may or may not be in expert in his or her field...."

Does a Healthy Survivor ever go to a doctor who is not an expert in his or her field?

Making Your Case at Doctor Visits-Part II

A commenter wrote "[A]ll of your suggestions here seem to protect the ego of the doctor.... I do sometimes feel that I need to "arm" myself. It's not the way it should be but, unfortunately, sometimes it is the way things are."

Many things in modern medicine are not the way they should be, such as waiting in a cold exam room for physicians who are running late. What's a Healthy Survivor to do?

Making Your Case at Doctor Visits

In my June 8th post, I share my discomfort with the notion of "arming yourself with ammunition" to encourage your physician to prescribe a specific treatment regimen. Any words and actions that suggest an adversarial stance threaten a healing clinician-patient bond.

Here are some options for making your case in healing ways:

Ammunition for Your Doctor Visit

I find it troubling when Healthy Survivors describe obtaining sound knowledge (the first step to Healthy Survivorship) as "arming themselves with ammunition" to make their case to their physician.

And the problem is....?

Key to the City

Yesterday I saw signs it was going to be a special day, even before arriving at the Hospital of Central Connecticut's National Cancer Survivors Day event. 

Fundamental Challenges of Life After Cancer

Sometimes it helps everyone if the most basic challenges of a situation are clarified. So today I'll distill the essential challenges that people face after completion of cancer treatment:

Hope Will Find You

Rabbi Naomi Levy's book To Begin Again has been my go-to book when comforting someone after the death of a loved one. Her new book Hope Will Find You is surely to become one of my go-to books when supporting someone after the death of hopes and dreams.