INTERACTION WITH THE PERSON MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT YOUR CANCER AND YOUR TREATMENT
When I think of the communication between doctors and patients at the time that cancer is diagnosed, I remember the great scene between Debra Winger and her oncologist in “Terms of Endearment.” Debra is lying in her hospital bed and the doctor says, “Dear, you have a malignancy.” After he says a few more lines of dialogue, she stops him and asks, “Could you say that again?”
No one is ever prepared to hear the words, “You have cancer.” When my husband was diagnosed, the world seemed to stop turning. The doctor’s mouth continued to move but the sound didn’t seemed to be turned on. Looking back, there are so many questions we just did not know to ask. Invariably, they were the ones we wished we had and the ones we were asked over and over.
[click to read the rest of this post…]
{ 0 comments }
