Radiologist's Blog

Let us practice in a way which enhances communications so that the personality of the person who is interacting comes through.

 

As radiologists, we use Imaging sciences to come to certain truths about the processes going inside a patient.

 

But there are some other truths, which help us grow as humans.

 

The patient should get a sense of the person as a human being and not just as a business-like transaction.

 

While keeping an appropriate balance to maintain professional boundaries, we can try to make patients feel like they have been related on a personal level.

 

Here is another relation-A thesis like no other which I have known.

 

A thesis

There have been many diagnoses I make in imaging. Sometimes, though hardened over the years, I wish my diagnosis was wrong.

 

While keeping an appropriate balance to maintain professional boundaries, we can try to make patients feel like they have been related on a personal level.

It all began three years ago when we first did a scan and saw multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, axilla and chest. After some further diagnostic tests, lymphoma was confirmed. Then they went to Germany. Several courses of chemotherapy , a weakened but surviving courageous lady goes on.

 

In the middle of all this, she also keeps preparing her dissertation to be submitted at the Faculty. Probably this keeps her mind from slipping into desperation.

 

"I cook for my children. Then I follow their homework." When he talks of his three sons, aged 12, 9 and 6, there is a sparkle in his eyes.

 

"Mummy, why cannot we go out like the old times?" they ask, wondering why their mother has so less energy. What is illness and how does it affect the lives of the little children of the family.

 

"I lost my job" he tells.

 

"The management could not understand that I have a sick wife and three children to look after". Things are tough. But Sami is a tough man. He has endured and the pain has made him grow as a person, as a husband, as a father. And his faith has remained unshaken.

 

This is one thing I have seen about Islam. It places God above everything else.

 

The relation of man to God. If it is the will of Allah, we shall carry on, work, endure, grow in that experience, the pain, the effort.

 

Many times I have tried to see for a hint of frustration or anger in this man. I have never found any negative feeling. There is a gentle sadness. But there is no anger directed at anyone, at any human or superior power. Many times, in our day to day encounters we tend to be petty, and blame others or circumstances for our condition.

 

She made me look at Set theory-the use of mathematics to explore, critique and explain the problems of existence, knowledge, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind and language. We are Pals forever.

This medical doctor who sees the affect of the deadly disease on his wife and family in the prime of their lives, never once has spoken ill of the doctors ( as many patients who become bitter do) or of his relatives who don't seem to be supporting him given the fact that he has to do all the caring for the children and running around for the treatment, or towards any superior power, as I have noticed some persons do in the midst of prolonged negative experiences and illness.

 

"Do I leave the mother of three children, my wife, to just die?" he asked aloud once.

 

His wife is a mathematician. He is a radiologist.

 

They have three nice children.

 

And this is their life, now focused around Lymphoma.

 

"Come with me to the University tomorrow" he rang me up one evening.

 

"My wife is presenting the synopsis of her thesis in Mathematics."

 

The Al-Fateh university of Tripoli has many theses in it's archives.

 

But this thesis is like no other. It was written by a lady, fighting with Lymphoma but yet carrying on with her studies.

 

"She is better, but is she cured? Can she ever be cured?" another doctor and friend asks me.

 

Maybe no. It is difficult to cure these things.

But Sami is not giving up yet.

 

"I will go to Cairo and rent a flat. They are going to give her stem cell therapy there", he told me of his next move.

 

The liver is involved. The bones are involved. But his resolve is strong. It will remain like that forever.

 

He will not give up till the end.

 

Pals Forever

Her spirit lives on.

 

She made me look at Set theory-the use of mathematics to explore and explain the problems of existence, knowledge, beauty, law, justice, validity, mind and language. Mathematics to explore and critique categories of truth, interrogate art and history, as well as ontology and scientific discovery.

 

We are Pals forever.

 

But PALS has another meaning for those searching for the truth.  Truth of oneself, in human conditions, systems and society.

 

According to Alain Badiou-one of the greatest living philosophers-who has used mathematics to explore truth, philosophy takes place under four conditions.

P Politics
A Art
L Love
S Science

These are the PALS of Truth procedures.

 

Let us try to find some more Pals in our Practice.