I started writing this memoir a few years ago, once I moved to Denver and had more time on my hands. I felt driven to write down some of the stories I heard when I was a doctor in a small town in Kentucky. Some of the patients I took care of left a deep impression on me, and I wanted to capture those memories before they flitted away.
Some patients’ stories moved me deeply. They impressed me with their courage, as they faced serious illnesses. Some patients were just plain amusing. Many patients shared their lives with me, simply by getting older and by telling me about their grandchildren. Still other patients presented diagnostic challenges which forced me to go deep into the medical texts and to seek consults with specialists. Finally, there was the cohort of patients whose hands I held – literally and figuratively – as they lay dying in the hospital.
Altogether, I am grateful to my patients for sharing their lives with me. There are only a few professions in which people speak so freely to you. Doctoring is one. Lawyering is another. And priests or rabbis also get their share of personal revelations. But it is a heady experience, to be trusted with a person’s secret fears, anxieties and medical infirmities.
The memoir is a collection of patient vignettes and of my personal ruminations on the nature of doctoring. I hope it will be of interest to those who like to hear about medicine and the challenges of diagnosis and treatment.
There are also a few chapters about my favorite topics: human genetics. The last 30 years have brought a sea change in our understanding of the human genome. I have presented a few patients with unique genetic diseases not found in other parts of the country. Kentucky has a history of isolation deep in the hollows of the Appalachians, and the isolation brings a higher incidence of rare genetic diseases.
Dr. Janet Tamaren 