Thursday 30 August 2007

Baggage

Patients, it is oft times said on American and American-esque daytime chat shows, have "emotional baggage" and need "closure" of things. Closure is still not a mainstream European concept (with "mindfullness" and acceptance being more avant garde in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy circles) but baggage is something that we all possess.

Many folk have recently seen me with baggage. And I use baggage in the sense of what they bring to the meeting with them.

One junior doctor (who's thankfully got a job) popped in with a bottle of wine to say thanks for all the supervision and support she's had from me over the last 6 months which have been particularly trying for all junior doctors.

One lady brought a bunch of flowers for my wife.

One chap brought in laminated cards he'd made of amusing cartoons he'd drawn to "cheer us all up" with.

One chap and his wife brought in a card to me simply to say "thank you."

My favourite was in my last outpatient clinic. A lady who I've known for a few years (with F31.7 bipolar affective disorder, currently in remission) who's on a complex drug regimen including lithium visited me for her quarterly review. She was well. She has been well for a while, now. She was delighted. Not hypomanic, not elated, simply happy, she came in beaming. What she brought to me was her smile.

Priceless :-)

2 comments:

Calavera said...

Awww... That's so touching!

You know, I always thought it was just GPs who got given presents from their patients!

Calavera said...

Oh, and thank you so much for all of your advice on my latest post. I mean that in a very heartfelt way - you obviously spent a lot of time structuring your comment and putting everything in.

I really, really appreciate it.

It's a tough decision to make, and I'm going to have to give myself a deadline to make it in.