My Account
I learnt a new word the other day. I got ridiculously excited about it, which tells you something about my lack of a social life. But I can’t help it; I’ve always been a word nerd. And generally speaking, if you use big words people will think you are more intelligent. Also, you can insult people without them knowing. Just tell somebody they are rebarbative and see the look of bewilderment that comes over their face.
Which is why I was annoyed when somebody told me a meeting I was organising was “nugatory”. This seriously ticked me off – he knew a word that I didn’! I had to go home and look it up in a dictionary. Truly humiliating.
Anyway, the point is that a lot of my job is about words. I help people to find the words for what they are experiencing. For instance, it can be very hard for patients to describe dizziness. Is it lightheadedness, vertigo, unsteadiness? I’ve heard swimmy, squiffy and even squarmy. Or tiredness – this can mean sleepiness, lack of energy or fatiguability. And somehow it helps when we find the right word: it helps because it feels like the symptom is definable and also helps me as their doctor to pin down a diagnosis.
Also consider the emotional power of words. Sometimes when I tell somebody that what they are experiencing is ‘normal’ they just about cry with relief. And likewise the phrase ‘I understand’ – when this is expressed sincerely by your doctor or nurse, it can make the difference between terrible and bearable.
Often when I can’t fix things I find myself saying to patients, “I’m going to walk through this with you”. It seems to be enough.
There is one word that I would particularly like to draw the fangs of, and that is cancer. In my career I have been astonished by the progress in treatments for cancer. Many previously dreaded malignancies now have 90-95 percent five-year survival rates. Melanoma caught early is almost always curable and there are even some stage four cancers which are responsive to treatment. Figures from the UK show that cancer survival has doubled in the last 40 years. Ninety eight percent of patients with testicular cancer are going strong after 10 years. Prostate cancer is also very treatable.
Which gives me the word which I think should be most strongly linked to the diagnosis of cancer now: hope.
