For many physicians, taking time
off work for any reason can be difficult. For many of
us, when we don't work we don't get paid, but our expenses
continue. When we return to work there's a backlog of
paperwork and patient problems. By the time we're back
at work for a few days, any of the benefits of our time
off have vanished. Moreover, many of us develop a sense
that we're indispensable and all of this fosters a 'workaholism'
which is not healthy. Add to that the fact that we're
terrible at seeking medical help from our colleagues
when we get sick. We can't afford the time off. We question
our own symptoms. In short, we procrastinate. Most of
us don't even have a family doctor and are loath to
face the vulnerabilities and uncertainties that surround
our own health. We make terrible patients.
I bring all this up because, as
things turned out, I had to take time off work. I had
a health issue that, after much avoidance and denial,
led me to undergo a colonoscopy. I will spare the details
except to say that the diagnosis was a few benign polyps.
However the experience of being a patient is one that
will stay with me. I was very impressed by the professionalism
of my medical and nursing colleagues involved in my
care.
I was also struck by the same anxieties
that often face patients as they deal with the uncertainties
of medical investigations. While I knew full well what
was going to be done, I still felt uncomfortable and
worried about the procedure and any potential diagnosis.
I think the routineness of these tests sometimes makes
us, as physicians, less sensitive to a patient's sense
of vulnerability. As a patient your mind can get filled
with all sorts of inane concerns and fears. "What if
the prep didn't work well enough? What if the sedation
makes me say something inappropriate?" 'What if' seemed
to be stuck in my brain as I waited for my procedure.
And there's nothing like a hospital
gown to take away any remaining dignity. I survived,
dignity intact and a bit more empathetic towards my
patients.
WELCOME
SOJOURN
By coincidence, I had also booked time off in early
April to go to Britain with my wife. The timing couldn't
have been better. Combining work with pleasure, I had
registered for the British Geriatric Society Meetings
in Newcastle. This was a three day conference directed
at geriatricians and very useful for family doctors
who do longterm care or see a lot of elderly patients
in their practice. The program was quite broad and the
talks ranged from basic science advances in gerontology
to the more pragmatic issues of patient care. Keynote
speakers from all over the world highlighted a large
number of study presentations on a wide variety of topics.
The Canadian speaker, Dr Cara Tannenbaum,
director of the McGill Geriatric Incontinence Clinic,
gave an excellent presentation. Jetlagged but determined
to make the audience participate, she politely bullied
the hall of staid geriatricians into a dynamic interactive
workshop. She knew her stuff and her presentation was
evidence based and clinically relevant. By the end she
had won over her audience and we all left feeling we
could better manage the incontinent elderly patient.
Talking with other people after the presentation, I
felt a bit more pride in my Canadian accent.
My wife and I also took a few days
off to travel. We spent two days in Edinburgh, a beautiful
city set in spectacular hills by the Firth of Forth,
an inlet of the North Sea, and dominated by the Castle.
The Scots don't golf in a bad snowstorm, but they'll
brave anything else the elements can offer. The wind
howls along the Links courses set on the coastline.
I managed a game at a course near Muirfield with what
the locals called a "three club wind." They said that
if I'd wanted to see a real wind, "Ye shood ha' ben
here t'other dey!"
Newcastle is a changed city —
forced to shed its heavy industrial past in a renaissance
of science and culture. Its university is rapidly becoming
a centre of scientific research and the city has become
a cultural mecca. The Newcastle brogue, called 'Geordie,'
is thicker even than that of the Scots.
Before heading home we spent a
weekend in London. What an incredibly energetic, international
city — you can do most anything there. On a sunny
spring Saturday it seemed the whole world was out in
the streets and many parks that dot the city. We walked
and shopped, gazed and gawked as only a couple of 'rural
colonials' could. We visited the National Gallery, went
to a musical at the Palais Royal, wandered around Covent
Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar
Square, Regent Street and on and on. We forgot all the
mundane routines of our everyday lives for a few short
days.
A good holiday goes by quickly
but feels like a long time and this one certainly went
by in no time but in it we managed to pack in quite
a lot. We spent the long flight home planning our next
one.
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