Perspective

As much as I rant about the issues related to health care I must say that the practice of medicine is a very sobering one. This past week I had the unfortunate opportunity to diagnose two women in their twenties with cancer. They both came with masses in their necks and after biopsy were both positive for lymphoma. They were living completely normal lives until one day they felt something abnormal in their bodies. It is unimaginable that in the course of days we can go from our normal routine to our lives being turned completely upside down with our lives in jeopardy. I am left with something very important and that is perspective as my "problems" seem very small after having to tell these women their diagnoses.

I think we tend to lose our perspective as we focus on the details of our lives. This is likely our natural tendencies to concentrate on our own sheltered lives until we are exposed to another's tragedy or perhaps one of our own which then give us perspective. It is unfortunate that it takes a shock to regain our sense of what is truly important. On the other hand, is it preferable to go through life with the attitude that things can always be worse, that every problem that arises is negligible compared to what these women are faced with. This approach tends to minimize any conflict that is not tragic which can also be problematic.

Clearly, the balance lies somewhere in between where we deal with our problems but always keep them in perspective. This is easy to say but difficult to live. We tend to drift back into our own worlds as it is too difficult and painful to live our lives thinking that tomorrow or the next day we will feel a lump somewhere in our bodies that shouldn't be there. I think as doctors we are faced with people's tragedies and are reminded often about perspective which tends to minimize other problems that may arise. This doesn't necessarily work well if our spouses do not share our perspective and feel that we too easily dismiss what they consider problematic. I suppose this is an occupational hazard.

These next few weeks are the period in the Jewish calendar where we are judged and our fates are determined for the coming year. Who will live and who will die. Whether one believes that his/her future is determined in the next couple of weeks is a personal issue but it certainly demands that one put their life into perspective. We never know whether we will wake up one day with a lump somewhere and our lives will forever be turned upside down.