Sublime

Patients often ask me about matters not within my expertise.

The experience of the body is never only about the body.

I find my patients much more interesting than their diseases.

even at one of the world’s great academic medical centers you can easily declare yourself an expert in a condition that no one else wants to deal with.

la maladie du petit papier

“How focused we become in our little areas, and how easy it is to lose sight of the daily fears and concerns of our patients,”

I simply accepted that my role as a novice medical student—perhaps the only role I felt competent to fulfill—was to spend time at the bedside of a patient my superiors would just as soon avoid.

Rachel Naomi Remen, who once observed,

See in the face of every patient the face of someone you love.