[QM] 13 - "Well, ya know, 'could be worse."

[ilove_thispart]

Cancer. It's a word that when you say it... even the slightest hint of it can send someone into having an emotional breakdown within seconds. You utter a word like lymph nodes, biopsy, malignant... growth... there are just words that a doctor has to say in their day to day that just hit people a bit harder than a common cold would.

Those are the moments when I realize just how much my job can suck. Telling people the bad news, the there's no hope sort of news just takes out all the actual joy of being a doctor. There are joys to being a doctor too, but none of them have to do with relaying the bad news to someone. There is also no good time to say, 'It could be worse' because to them this is the worst thing they could hear. This isn't a flat tire on your car and being glad that you're not out of gas as well.

This is cancer. This means so many more things than just the diagnosis. It means treatment, and family counseling. It means prayer or finding religion for the first time, or leaving it for the last time. It's a lot of things, but it's only after everything has settled that you can finally look forward to thinking what could have been worse.

I just know most my patients don't ever want to think that way, because that's already more negative thinking than they want to feel at the moment.