Now on ScienceBlogs: Oxytocin: Starting with the basics
"Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours." -Sir William Osler
My archives are located at Archives of the Cheerful Oncologist, Volume 2
Category: Patient Advocacy
Telling a patient "You are dying" pays no respect to the tremendous amount of hard work the patient has put into the mind, into developing and maintaining a hopeful and courageous attitude during his or her illness.
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 12:59 PM • 27 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
Patients should not feel ashamed to express feelings of distress, which can often be assuaged with a few words of kindness and encouragement.
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 7:04 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
If you are an athlete or are just committed to exercising regularly, no matter what your age is, what do you do if your doctor tells you to stop it?
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 7:03 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
...as these secrets are transformed into promising medicines, the irony of the uninsured patient hangs in the air like the stench from a rotting carcass.
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 9:07 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
The irony in these two stories is enough to make a doc quit his practice and get a job advising people on why they are better off dead.
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 9:05 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
Why would cancer specialists agree to give induction chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia to a patient whom they knew could not survive the treatment?
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 8:41 PM • 10 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
Doctors constantly have to make decisions that reflect their intelligence and judgment, but sometimes they are faced with a decision that tests their personality. Here's an example: "Should I (a) let this patient continue to ramble on, further delaying the...
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 1:16 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
In 18 years of practice I have never seen a death from an overdose of narcotics. This is the difference between taking narcotics for cancer-related pain compared to a headache.
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 8:12 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
"Listen, your job is to tell the patient what the deal is, okay? Leave the inspriational stuff to the Padre."
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 3:03 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Patient Advocacy
I honestly don't know how any living human being could ever be proud of earning the right to have the following epitaph carved on their headstone:
Posted by Craig Hildreth at 2:39 PM • 7 Comments •
