Uzma Yunas: Left Boob Gone Rogue
Selected Excerpt
“Hi,
It’s me, the patient you saw thirty minutes ago. I wanted to give you this feedback in person, but listening is not your strong suit, so I chose to write this.
Having been a physician now for over twenty years, I can usually tell by the way a student greets me whether a conversation will be worthwhile or not. Whether it’s my personality, my power of observation, or the years of teaching other how to interview patients and engage them, but somewhere in that amalgam of knowledge, I have the ability to sense what a student truly sees and how much of his or her attention is in the room with me… “
Discussion Questions
What do you think of the description of the exam room as a sacred space?
What does this letter say about the balance of power between patient and physician?
What barriers to patient-physician communication arise in this letter?
What role do the humanities have in teaching us about patient-physician communication?
Reflections from #MedHumChat
“Framing the exam room as sacred space creates an opportunity for relating differently to the patient - a place in which to honor presence.” —@AwakenKaruna
“I'm so struck by how much power the pt asserts here but sadly for unfortunate reasons. The MD assumes and answers qs for the pt, wants the pt to follow her lead rather than letting the pt guide some of the convo and have a real voice too in both content + tone.” —@alinasato
“Even as a patient w/ lots of experience with doctors, it can be hard to speak my mind. It's not where I work. If a dr comes in & is obviously "in charge" or "efficient" that makes it almost impossible for me. So much depends on the dr.” —@mcshannon17
About this #MedHumChat
“Left Boob Gone Rogue” was paired with the poem “What the Doctor Said” by Anonymous for a #MedHumChat on November 9, 2021 discussing Patient-Physician Communication.
The pieces for this chat as well as the accompanying discussion questions were curated by Jennifer Caputo-Seidler (@jennifermcaputo) as a special collaboration with The Examined Life (@ExaminedLife_UI) which featured live audience participation.
About the Author
Uzma Yunas was a blogger, physician, cancer survivor and mom who believed in the therapeutic power of story telling. She died on January 30, 2019; her blog is continued by her husband who accompanied her on her cancer journey.