This blog post is a continuation from something I had written as an MD General Medicine Resident. "Connect" was a concept that I visualized, where doctors and patients get to know each other better as people, get to understand who and what they are, when not bound by health and disease. People, getting to know other people. No hierarchy.

Now, I’ve spent almost a year as a Medical Oncology resident at Tata Memorial Hospital. 

Medical Oncology in many ways differs from the rest of medicine, in that we are not always treating to “cure” and that simply disease control or symptomatic relief are also acceptable outcomes. The branch of oncology is very vast and complex, and as a junior “Senior” resident, there are many questions thrown my way by the patients that I may not be able to answer immediately. Work is exhausting, hours are long and the reading matter is more exhaustive(and exhausting) than I’ve ever encountered before. But all said and done, work is very rewarding.

More rewarding still is the lives we touch and stories we see unfolding in front of us.
 

Most of what I’m writing here is not just about myself, but things I’ve observed from my teachers, seniors and colleagues, and of course our patients

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At the end of the day, people are people. Both doctors and patients have the same needs, wants, likes and dislikes as anyone else. True, we are bound together as the sufferer and the healer, but that doesn’t really change who we are as people (or at least it shouldn’t).

Also, we doctors invariably end up spending more time in the company of our patients than we do in the company of our families. If you’re spending so much time with someone, you may as well get to know them well.

 

All it takes is a little conversation. A few sentences more than the basic: “ How many times did you get fever today ?” , or “How is the nausea ? “ . A few sentences that remind the patients that we are human too. A short conversation on cricket, the news, politics, a snippet about the latest Bollywood gossip, or even discussing our favourite singers! All it takes is a moment to form a connection, to provide a topic to discuss, to laugh about. To smile, together.