Healing is a Team Sport

There is little doubt I could have gotten this far on my medical journey without the assistance of excellent physicians. Of course I have encountered less than stellar ones on this path, but healing is a team sport, even when the symptoms live inside one body. It asks for more than endurance from the person in pain than what one person can manage. Illness calls on physicians who listen carefully, guides who help make meaning of suffering, friends who stay when plans change, and family members who learn new ways to show up. It includes pharmacists, infusion nurses, physical therapists, and the encouragement of someone who sends a text on a hard morning. While only I know the burning sensation in my head and right foot, going on ten years at this point, I still require others to participate in the care and maintenance of me. This may come in the form of a prescription for the medication that my body requires, such has my Cuvitru immunoglobulins, or in the form of someone showing up and letting me know they care. Healing can grown in conversation, in shared language, in the willingness to say I need help and the willingness of others to respond. No one chooses illness, yet many people choose to participate in another person’s recovery. When we allow ourselves to be supported, we become part of a circle that carries the weight together, and that shared effort becomes its own form of medicine. If you are struggling to carry that weight alone, reach out and get in contact with me.

Dr. Jeffrey Bone