Experiences: Reflecting on certain fate, I breathe

By John D. Goodson MD

Forward Personal connections make doctoring powerfully rewarding. My life has been filled with many planned encounters of unexpected content. As a primary care physician, my day-to-day routine was laid out in blocks of time subdivided into smaller segments for each patient on my schedule. Before office hours, I would round on hospitalized patients. At the end of the day, I would complete my records, review lab results, check with my staff, answer messages, and make calls (yes, even house calls). Days were comprised of countless contacts with patients, many in person, others by phone or message, and still others as represented by a lab result or a consultant''s note. For each contact, in the office or otherwise, I had to fully engage. This is the nature of medical practice, intense focus on the moment, no distractions, gather, assess, decide, act, close, move on. Office encounters were the most precious interactions, I with my medical knowledge and each patient with stories, not just of illness, but of life, family, relationships, commitments, personal events, and so much more. From all of these elements, I constructed my understanding of those in my care, who they were and what they faced in life. Through these many connections I also discovered something crucial in myself. Sharing life with patients was an unanticipated gift. I did not imagine as my career began, that I would develop so many privileged relationships. My work as a physician allowed countless unique companionships. I celebrated life with each. I was present professionally while, close-up, I shared their apprehension, uncertainty, and fear. Over the decades, illness and death were unshakeable facts. The courage, strength, and determination I witnessed became indelible memories. The lessons of individual fortitude demanded that I write to recognize the singularity and tenacity of life in the face of a certain fate. The poetry tumbled to the page quickly and spontaneously until there was nothing more that I needed to say. Poetry was a way to sustain myself with both reconciliation and remembrance. Other experiences also engaged deep emotions: an unanswerable question from a dear friend, the retirement of a colleague who commanded my highest admiration, an unexpectedly difficult encounter with a patient, and more. Together, these poems represent my good fortune to live a life that demanded my recognition and celebration of resilience and inevitable passage. My book is for patients, doctors, and other readers who might recognize some aspect of the intimate interactions the poems record. John D Goodson MD Cambridge, Massachusetts Dr. John Goodson is a super-doctor at what is likely America''s super-hospital, The Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. His first book of poetry consisted of 100 poems -- the subject of many : how doctors react to their patients who have an untreatable disease. At age 71, when Goodson became severely disabled with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he decided to publish a second book. The poems in this volume meld the patients'' and the doctors'' points of view. Goodson accepts knowledge as a positive thing, understands the problem of uncertainty, and has memories and conversations with his patients either directly or in his own mind. This is a mode of empathy, the ability to see the optimistic sides of otherwise dire circumstances. John Goodson''s remarkable collection of poems articulates what every chronic illness patient intuits: doctors'' and patients'' lives are deeply intertwined. A positive outcome is still possible no matter how grievous the current circumstances seem. Adversities become opportunities for the doctor, the patient, and the reader. Michael D. Lockshin, MD, MACR Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics-Gynecology Hospital for Special Surgery and New York Presbyterian Hospital

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0D5LZ31X6
• ISBN13: 9798326730091
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 76 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"