ASK THE DOCTOR: Mom’s Prescription
While recovering from cervical spine surgery last month, I’ve been contemplating the role of love in healing. I also have been grateful for the scientific prowess and surgical skill required to safely cut through muscle and bone to create space for my spine to breathe.
Medical care should be a combination of love and skill, careful attention and academic vigor. Our bodies are miraculous — so many vital organs just doing their thing daily, while our brain runs the show. Medical care steps in to reduce the risk of future organ dysfunction or to try to fix the dysfunction when it occurs.
In my over 28 years as a physician, we have made many advances, including biologics that pinpoint the part of the immune system causing disease like rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. Advances have allowed many cancers to become a manageable chronic or, at times, curable disease. Surgeries can be done with smaller incisions and precision robotic assistance. Our understanding of mental illness has improved, allowing treatment and reduction in stigma.
Getting care has always been easier for people with wealth and in bigger cities. But now I am seeing the divide widen. We have a nationwide shortage of physicians. Many communities are losing doctors who, after serving for years, are threatened with deportation for being immigrants. It is expensive to attend medical school, often barring the possibility of people from small towns or less privileged backgrounds to afford it. Those of us living in rural areas may have to travel long distances to get specialty or even primary care — another widening gap in the system.
Love in medical care is not just the one-to-one interactions, like a doctor actually listening with full attention and respect. It is also the way we approach health care as a community and society. What is the point of health care? Is it to use our cool technology? Is it to prevent disease? Is it (should it be) to make money? Is it to live as long as possible? Could it be that if we had the wherewithal to acknowledge where our system is broken, we might rebuild it in a way that brings technological advances to every single person, as well as primary and preventative care within easy driving distance?
Big questions, and as I sit here in my recliner (thank you, Furniture Design Center of Eureka) recovering from my surgery, I have time to think between naps, mystery novels and watching our cherry tree blossom out the window. The reality is that there is less health care available here in Humboldt County now than when I arrived 25 years ago (see page 3)..
That being said, I received expert care myself right here. A lot of my recliner time has been sitting in gratitude for that local care and support I have received.
Which brings me to the bread and- butter necessity of love as an essential ingredient in the course of healing. It can manifest in various ways. Perhaps by the tender and efficient care of a hospital nurse when one is at their most vulnerable. It can be the soup made by friends, the flowers brightening the room, and the person cleaning and doing your unruly hair. It can be the friends who remind you to treat your pain, and to be as careful with your own recovery and healing as you would be with a patient you are advising.
My mother was a nurse, trained in New York City, no-nonsense. As a young Yankees fan, she was harassed when she showed up to a practice game in Brooklyn with the Dodgers, and a Yankees player escorted her home on the subway. As a nursing student, she treated infants with rat bites. As a mom, she worked throughout her chemotherapy while keeping the house running. From her, I learned resilience, strength and the ability to get a lot done in one day. But I don’t think she received the loving support she needed from her doctors or anyone else when she was ill herself.
Medical care is more than the surgeries and treatments. It is also the human side of taking care of each other, and acknowledging our neighbors’ struggles as well as our own. I was too young to support my mom’s healing, though I am sure she knew I loved her. I honor her now by continuing to advocate for better medical care for everyone.
What is the point of health care? We’ve known the answer for ages, summed up in a statement so old that no one is sure who said it first: To cure sometimes, to relieve often, and to comfort always.
Dr. Jennifer Heidmann is chief medical officer at Redwood Coast PACE (707-443-9747) at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center. This column should not be taken as medical advice. Ask your medical provider if you have health questions. Send comments to SN@humsenior.org.
