الأحد، 22 سبتمبر 2013

1st line of ttt



as a physician, you have to deal with the worst kind of human emotion.. fear.
People don’t come to you because they are sick, they come to you because they are scared. When someone starts having an unusual unpleasant feeling, they go like “what the hell is wrong is with me”, they panic and fear it might be something serious and that’s when they rush to your workplace.
fear is your biggest enemy as a doctor, not the disease, you can handle the disease by opening your book or surfing the internet, but no book will teach you how to conquer your patient’s fear which you really need to do to reach them and be able to conquer the disease itself..

as a doctor, the patient thinks you have magical powers and you know all that it takes to take their pain away. well, of course you don’t have any of those powers and as it happens, so many times you may have totally no idea what you should do and even need to consult one of your superiors no matter how old or experienced you are, your patient doesn’t have to find out that, you are their biggest hope and they should keep that hope alive.. so, just keep that in mind.

since i got to understand and appreciate the value of conquering your patient’s fear and the way they look at you as their therapist, i started thinking of ways that could help in taking that fear away, i could think of some things and they work..
1. FAITH.. it is an important tool to use, especially in a place like the middle east where almost all citizens who do believe that their God can take their pain away and only Him can heal them. this may sound nonsense to some, but you can’t ever ignore people’s faith, especially when you can use that to help your patient get better or at least accept their disease. so, don’t underestimate that.
2. STATISTICS.. you can use this in certain cases that really-needs reassurance when you’re lucky enough to be dealing with a serious illness that medical statistics say it is curable.. leukemia in children for example, the 5-year-survival rates has increased up to 90% in children with ALL with real chances of complete cure afterwards for those who have survived.. you can’t neglect such a great piece of info when a mother of a leukemic patient comes to you seeking a ray of hope for her diseased child
3. HIDING THE TRUTH.. sometimes hiding the true nature f your patient’s illness can help, this is still controversy, some believe that the patient have the right to know every detail about their disease,  their options and chances.. and this is true of course, but sometimes knowing the truth can cause more harm to your patient than benifits, like when you’re dealing with an incurable fatal disease like cancer, the patient won’t get much benefit from knowing he’s probably goin’ to die soon, I think it is better to hide it from them, especially if old and there’s someone to take care of them like children or siblings.. it’s enough to tell their caregiver to get them in the picture and make them understand their role in the therapy.. too bad you can’t hold the truth for so long..

these are just tries and what’s really important is the point behind it all which i honestly hope all my colleagues in the medical field will get, especially physicians who have to deal with chronic illnesses Vs surgeons who usually provide an absolute end to the complaint.

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