Narrative Medicine

Narrative Medicine Monday: Foley Catheter

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Poet Kimberly Johnson shares the experience of caring for her husband during his cancer treatment in “Foley Catheter.” Johnson writes about a different kind of intimacy, that of a caregiver for a loved one.

She begins with the mechanics of cleaning her husband’s catheter with “kindliest touch,” changing the drainage bag. This interaction creates a different dimension to their partnership. The poem is a kind of contemplation on marriage, on how we care for those we commit to even as their bodies fail, are transformed: “When I vowed for worse / Unwitting did I wed this”. Johnson writes with tenderness, but also refreshing clarity that this “jumble / Of exposed plumbing” has not been an easy experience to maneuver.

In reading Johnson’s poem, I think not only of the different intimacies of marriage, but also the vulnerability that arises between patient and clinician. Each day patients confide in us, let us care for their bodies, share things that they are sometimes unable to share with those closest to them. It is a privilege, a gift, and, at times, a heavy weight to carry.

Johnson’s honesty reveals a different kind of intimacy that arises out of caring for her ill husband. As his nurse, this other connection “Opens—ruthless and indecent, consuming / All our hiddenmosts.” She ends with the words we use, tying the tenacity of a tumor to that of the cherished spouse: “In a body, immodest / Such hunger we sometimes call tumor; / In a marriage / It’s cherish. From the Latin for cost.”

Writing prompt: If you’ve cared for a loved one who was ill, how did this interaction alter or add layers to your relationship? Has intimacy ever cost you anything? If you’re a healthcare provider, what are the benefits, or the drawbacks, of being exposed to patients lives and bodies in such a profound way? Has that experience changed you or the way you interact in your personal relationships? Write for 10 minutes.

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Narrative Medicine

Narrative Medicine Monday: Complaint

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We discussed writer and physician William Carlos Williams’ “Complaint” during a poetry lecture at the first workshop of Harvard’s Media & Medicine program. I was struck by how differently those in the class, mostly clinicians, interpreted this poem.

I saw it as Williams’ manifesto for physicians. Healthcare professionals often feel a calling to their work. Though it is a challenging road, in both training and practice, there is rich meaning inherent in the work we do. Williams at first seems reluctant to move into the dark in the middle of the night, but when he arrives to the patient’s home, he is able to “shake off the cold.” He finds a “great woman / on her side in the bed.” There was discussion as to what Williams meant by “great woman.” Why do you think he used this adjective? Do you find his tone in the poem complementary or otherwise?

There were different thoughts on Williams’ curious use of “perhaps” in the following lines: “She is sick, / perhaps vomiting, / perhaps laboring / to give birth to a tenth child.” These are things that, as her physician, you’d expect him to be clear about. I wonder if the use of “perhaps” is a commentary on medicine itself. Our patients could be suffering, and do, from all kinds of illness and ailments and, though not interchangeable, regardless of their disease, we owe them our attention and compassion.

Williams ends tenderly, a hope for the profession, despite a tone of distancing himself from the situation. These last lines reveal the intimacy that often occurs between healthcare providers and patients. The doctor begins in the chill of midnight, going because he is called, but ends with this moment of compassion. Can you relate to this scene, either as a patient or as a physician?

Writing Prompt: Do you think in today’s world of modern medicine patients and their doctors still connect in the same way as during Williams’ era? How is a house call different from an office visit at a clinic? What do new technologies (email, video visits, chat) offer patients and their medical providers, and how do these interactions limit that relationship? Alternatively, think about the title of this poem. Why do you think Williams called it “Complaint?” Write for 10 minutes.

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