This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Ad Directory


American Physicians Insurance Company ...................................................13 Arms of Hope ............................................ 30 Athenahealth ................................................6 Baylor Healh Care Systems ...................24 Capital Farm Credit ................................. 44 Capital Medical Clinic ..............................43 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ..... 5 Cooper Institute .........................................34 Covenant Medical Group ........................25 Humana .......................................................IBC Kindred ............................................................8 Leichter Law................................................45 Looper Reed & McGraw ...........................13 Seton Healthcare ......................................40 Sharp & Cobos, P.C. Attorneys at Law ........................................................34 Smart Scrubs ...............................................31 Solveras Payment Solutions/ TransFirst ..................................................26


Texas Department of State Health Services (HIV)...........................26


Texas Mutual Insurance ...........................33 Texas Medical Association Bank of America ................................... 46 Classifieds .................................................32 Communication Division ....................... 3 DocbookMD .............................................52 Gulf Coast REC ........................................51 Hard Hats for Little Heads .................47 HIPAA ........................................................40 Legislative Agenda ...................After 40 Practice Consulting ...............................48 TexMed 2013 ............................................54 TEXPAC .....................................................52


Texas Medical Association Insurance Trust ...........................................................BC


Texas Medical Liability Trust ............... IFC West, Webb, Allbritton and Gentry, PC ................................................47


We talked about this and that, medi-


cations, sobriety, and follow-up at the office — all the usual stuff at discharge time. I got up to leave. “I’ll see you in three weeks, doc!” he said as he jauntily waved good-bye. I didn’t see Spider in three weeks. I saw him in three years. I had wondered what had happened to him during that time. Now he was back in a familiar exam room in my office, but this time in an electric wheelchair. Before I had a chance to ask “what happened?” Spider started the conversa- tion. “Hi, doc. ’Member me?” His clawed right hand maneuvered the wheelchair joystick expertly, as he wheeled back and forth in the room in a series of jerky arcs. Spider, the long, sinewy, muscular, charmingly sociopathic Spiderman, was now quadriplegic. He didn’t wait for a reply.


“Yeah. I moved to Florida. And I got a job! Can you believe it? Me, with a job? Yeah. I drove a fertilizer truck down there. That’s how ‘this’ [he gestured toward his neck with the other con- tractured hand] happened. Flipped the damn truck on a rainy day roundin’ a corner. And I know what you’re thinkin’. But I was as sober as a judge. I told you three years ago that I would alter my lascivious ways, and I did,” a note of unabashed glorious triumph in his voice. I sensed that, somehow, his profound change in his approach to life mattered tremendously more to him than his all- too-evident recent physical affliction.


A career in medicine teaches one many things about humanity. With the professor, I had witnessed the interac- tion of emotion (fear) with coping mech- anisms (intellectualization) in a person. In Spider’s case, I learned about iro-


Advertise for as little as $25! TMA’s website experiences nearly 320,000 visitor sessions each month. With this kind of activity, can you afford not to advertise in TMA’s online classifieds? Place and purchase your classified ad now at http://classifieds.texmed.org.


ny. And about the capacity in all of us to purposely seek a new direction. And about acceptance of adversity. I learned these things from an ex-drug-dealing, re- covering alcoholic.


Physicians learn about humanity, what it means to be human, by inter- acting with thousands of patients with a near-infinite variety of backgrounds. A list of my patients over the years in- cludes world authorities in astronomy


50 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2013


and petty criminals and just ordinary people with boring, or comic, or tragic circumstances.


Based on these interactions with peo- ple, the picture of humanity that forms in our minds is constantly evolving as we ourselves age. Over time, these in- teractions blend with our own precon- ceptions, biases, and personality to manufacture a reasonable personalized portrayal of what human beings are all about. What a gift! What other profes- sion affords its members the opportunity to have a front-row seat at the human parade? The thousands of patients who come our way over the course of a career in medicine present us with the opportu- nity to understand, better than most, the nature of Man. I think physicians, burdened with ceaseless administrative challenges to overcome and the humdrum of routine, too infrequently appreciate this hidden, precious gift we receive for discharging our clinical duties. But it is worthy of our appreciation, as the subtext of these patient encounters (what it means to be human) is as important to our own exis- tence as the main plot (what causes this person to suffer) is to our patients. I have been so fortunate to have wit- nessed this wonderful variation of hu- man experience. I am grateful for what all of these people have given me, their stories, their hopes and worries, the pri- vate looks into the richness as well as the impoverishment of their hearts. Doctors frequently receive thanks


from appreciative patients, expressions of their personal inherent kindness and goodness, for the many good works that we do for them. But as I think back about the past 30 years of work, I wish I would have thanked my patients more often for all they have given me. n


Dr. Williams is assistant professor of clinical medicine in The University of Texas Southwestern-Austin Depart- ment of Internal Medicine.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68