One patient that is memorable is a patient who had been in a car accident resulting from falling asleep at the wheel. He was an older patient who spent a lot of his life doing philanthropic work, teaching and coaching student, and expressed a sense of embarrassment over the car accident. Diagnostic imaging was performed and physicians happened upon a potentially cancerous mass in his lung. When I spoke with the patient for the first time, he seemed to try to contain his anxiety, nervousness, and sadness by smiling and saying, “everything just fine, I’m just a little scraped up.” I interviewed the patient further asking him about any medical or non-medical factors he could potentially identify that would lead to his falling asleep at the wheel. “Are you getting enough sleep generally?” or “Do you feel like you are experiencing an abnormal amount of stress for any reason?” In response to the question about stress, the patient began to unravel his story about the difficulties he experienced in his family including having close family member battling mental illness and suicidal ideations. In many ways, this patient was extremely self-sacrificial and often pointed out that he didn’t do the best job taking care of his own mental and emotional well-being. The patient spoke for majority of the time, appearing to release all his thoughts and concerns all at once in a stream of consciousness. Near the end, I had the opportunity to affirm him, stating that he seemed to care a great deal about his loved ones and his community. I also encouraged him to think about self-care as a means of caring for others in the long run. Throughout, he would say, “You know, I think you’re right, I never thought of it that way.” Upon his initiation, we spoke about topics of spirituality, the unknowns of life, and how we individually relinquished control over the uncontrollable, which brought him a sense of comfort and release. He thanked me for listening and affirmed me stating, “I think you’ve really help me here. I feel a lot better. Thank you so much.” Despite the amount of time listening and conversing with the patient, attending to the patient’s psychosocial needs carried over into attending to the patient’s physical needs. The second time I visited the patient, he said “You helped me get through my issues last time. Thank you. I’m ready to work.”
Grace Wang (PT2)