Shortly after reading Vigil, I stumbled upon Sara Baker’s poem, “What Do the Dying Want?” (Spring 2015). In this work, Baker explores the titular question by wondering how healthcare professionals, hospice workers, or even caregivers and family members can properly address the needs of the dying – is the correct way through words and stories, reminiscing, music, meaningful touch, or just holding space and being present?
Read moreWays of Knowing (and Not Knowing) When the Prognosis is Terminal by writer PK Kennedy
"Right in here, remove your clothes. Underwear and bra can stay on but put the robe on so it's open in the back, not the front, okay?"
The words are coming at me in a torrent; I can’t understand any of them, but I know the drill.
I throw my stuff in a bag, take a deep breath, and open the door to the inpatient surgical waiting room. It smells like alcohol and ice and has no memories I can sense. Am I the first person that’s ever come here?
“You’re here for the lumbar?”
I cut her off before she could say puncture. "Yes."
Read moreWritten in the Stars: A Reflection on Youth Cancer by Will Moody
For every young adult diagnosed with cancer, a time comes when we ask ourselves a question.
Why?
Why did this happen to me? Why now? They are not questions we want an answer to, but as humans, we crave finding meaning in our lives. We do it because the alternative is accepting that cosmic randomness determines our very breath.
Why did this happen to me? Why now? They are not questions we want an answer to, but as humans, we crave finding meaning in our lives. We do it because the alternative is accepting that cosmic randomness determines our very breath.
Read moreBedside Mannerisms: Finding the time to care by pediatrics resident Vidya Viswanathan
In medical training, there is an increasing didactic focus on empathy and professionalism. In many of these sessions, I have learned certain skills: Sit down at the patient’s level. Ask them open-ended questions. Don’t interrupt. Use an in-person, video or phone interpreter. These skills are helpful. But often, they run up against the great limiting factor in many of our clinical encounters: time.
Read moreOn Vulnerability and Transformation, a reflection on open hearts and medical training by hematologist-oncologist Jennifer Lycette
“Retrospection Series” (Fall 2019 Intima), Joseph Burns writes on undergoing open-heart surgery at age twenty-three, only two months before In he started medical school. At first, he is reluctant to share his story with his peers. “It was a secret that was contained within the walls of the physical exam simulation rooms.” But as his training moves forward, he is motivated by his experiences “to become the best physician possible…to be the one who provides care, love, compassion, and primarily hope in situations where all may seem lost.”
Read morePlaying Favorites: When Caregivers Recognize a Wider Capacity to Love by Flo Gelo
“The Favorite” (Spring 2021 Intima) by clinician Amy Tubay is a story about having one. It’s a story about the defiant heart—how certain patients enter our affections in ways that are largely mysterious. That love—a love that overrides rules and regulations—isn't something we pay enough attention to in the health professions.
Read moreCostumes: What a Plague Doctor Wears to Deliver Care by family physician Carla Barkman →
This past Halloween, I rewatched The Rocky Horror Picture Show and thought about costumes. Who here is truly in disguise? Is it Frank-N-Furter with his heavy eye makeup, corset and garter, or Janet and Brad with their buttoned-up blouses, white doll shoes and matching purse, who come alive only after they are stripped to their underclothes and made up, for the final performance, in drag? Sometimes we dress up as monsters, but perhaps more often we hide our quirky selves beneath bland cloaks of conformity, afraid of the attention an unusual performance might attract.
Read moreBeyond Acronyms: Contemplating what 'OLD CARTS' really stands for by Tulsi Patel
“OLD CARTS” is an acronym we’re taught in medical school to guide us on questions to ask to elicit a history of the patient’s illness: Onset, Location, Duration, Characteristics, Aggravating or Alleviating factors, Radiation (of pain), Treatment, and Significance. Although OLD CARTS is a helpful checklist initially, over time it begins to feel perfunctory, done to check off a requirement on the rubric. We ask many questions, and I am keenly aware I’m asking because I want something from the patient—I want telltale signs, any clues on the diagnosis, any information that the care team can act upon and use— I feel greedy.
Read moreGetting it Right, Even When it Feels Wrong: A Reflection by poet Ceren Ege
In his video “Inside Anxiety and Depression,” William Doan’s words “writing is drawing” were a reminder of my existence as a poet and artist, and how the latter is an identity I felt uncomfortable with for a long time. I squirmed at the creation of “art” out of another’s suffering, even though my father’s illness felt like the only thing worth writing about. Now I sit with a different question: whether anyone’s suffering is entirely separate. I think owning suffering defeats the very aim of why we move it to articulation—to release it, to divide the burden of it, and to comprehend it with others.
Read moreRooms and Wombs and Writing: A Reflection on Stories Highlighting Life’s Impermanence by Patrick Connolly
I’ve come back to Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” so many times. He uses third person objective point of view to create a chill in a scene that could otherwise be exuberant and exotic. A train station, central Spain, a hot afternoon, people talking about their lives together, an unspoken baby on the way – and that is a problem.
Read moreConnecting with the World of Our Patients: A Reflection by Savita Rani
In her poem “Internet Dating for Centenarians” (Intima, Fall 2021), Sarah Smith paints an animated picture of her cheeky and cheerful elderly patient. Smith, a board-certified family physician and author of The Doctor Will Be Late, describes her dilemma about which topic to discuss with her patient—lipids or love.
Read moreInside Voices: Learning When to Listen, When to Control by writer Marleen Pasch
In my short story “Rocks and River,” ( Fall 2021 Intima) a young woman named Tran Huong Giang stands on the MacMillan University Bridge and looks into the ravine below. She knows—as does writer Meredith O’Brien in her essay “Another Game Day”(Fall 2021 Intima)—what it’s like to hear two voices.
Read moreFacelessness and the Glass Between Us: Finding Connection In the Era of Covid by Hannah Dischinger, MD
COVID has gotten in the way of so much, literally. It floods lungs with heavy fluid, making it impossible to do meaningful gas exchange. It has become unfathomably, sickly politicized, another ideological wedge between two sides of an already divided country. The currencies of medicine—vulnerability, respect, trust, among others—have become that much harder to exchange. As I read Dr. Uhrig’s beautiful “Facelessness,” I felt some of these barriers lessen in knowing I’m in good company as I think about these new dynamics.
Read moreWhen Medical Professionals Care for Their Own: A Response to “Of Prematurity and Parental Leave,” by Mason Vierra
“Of Prematurity and Parental Leave” (Intima, Fall 2021) describes the harrowing experience of giving birth to a premature baby during residency. It’s written by doctors married to each other —Dr. Campagnaro and Dr. Woodside—who co-construct a narrative by telling it from their own perspective.
Read moreA Simple Ritual: Reflecting on the Moments Before Surgery by poet and orthopedic surgeon Photine Liakos
Surgeons are well-known for precision and protocols. There is often a ritual nature to our actions when preparing for surgical interventions, an orderliness and discipline: checklists, time-outs, pauses, consensus.
Read moreWhen the “Clock of the Living” Runs Down: A Reflection by clinical social worker and chaplain Betty Morningstar
The fractured stories at the end of life often reflect an ineffable but powerful experience of creativity, insight or even revelation. These opportunities arise because the dying person doesn’t see time according to the clock of the living. Imagine how much one could conceive of were time not of the essence.
Read moreThe Shit Poems: A Reflection by Drea Burbank
I am interested in the juxtaposition between my use of poetry to shed traumatic experiences and memories from medicine, and the description of William Carlos Williams by Britta Gustavson (“Re-embodying Medicine: William Carlos Williams and the Ethics of Attention,” Spring 2020 Intima).
Read moreThe Limits of Love: A Reflection by Carmela McIntire about Anorexia, Overeating and Fulfillment
Disordered eating occupies a spectrum—anorexia nervosa at one end, morbid obesity at the other. Attempting rigid control of the body and its appetites, anorexics are unable to see themselves and their bodies accurately. Compulsive overeaters—often obese—similarly might not see themselves accurately. In both disorders, controlling food is the aim, a genuine addiction, a strategy through which addicts deal with the world and their own circumstances—a necessary coping skill, even though it is risky to health in both cases.
Read moreWhat I Learned about the ICU: A Reflection by Benjamin Rattray
In her essay “The Shape of the Shore” (Spring 2020 Intima), Rana Awdish takes us into the intensive care unit during the ravages of a pandemic. She shows us “…the desperate thrashing patients on the other side of the glass” and “…the sticky blood on the floor.” As I read the words, my breath becomes shallow as fear and grief pummel into me. Somewhere deep, beneath the shrouds of consciousness, the words resonate, and I feel as though I am slipping beneath an indigo sea.
Read moreShakespeare, Stanzas and How We Think About Death by Albert Howard Carter, III, PhD
When my sonnet “All Tuned Up” appeared (Spring 2021 Intima), I was asked to write about another piece published in the journal. I chose “I Picture You Here, But You’re There” (Spring 2020 Intima) by Delilah Leibowitz. Her poem and mine both explore how we think and feel about death.
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