Peace, Love and Healing by Bernie Siegel

Author:Bernie Siegel [Bernie Siegel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 1999-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Some of you may be amazed at this woman’s willingness to confront authority and express such strong opinions about the kind of surgery she is willing to have. But she had researched her options, and was careful to leave the door open to further discussion if necessary (“if I understand it correctly,” she noted, in reference to the surgical procedure she was opposed to—thereby inviting the surgeon to remedy any possible misapprehension).

If I received a letter like this, but felt strongly that the procedure the patient was rejecting was the right one for her, I would explain my thinking, perhaps by telling her how I would treat the same condition in my wife or myself. But I would never make her feel that if she didn’t do what I said she couldn’t return to my office. If we were unable to reach an agreement about her treatment, I might say, “I care about you, so let’s see you again in two weeks and find out what progress you’ve made. If what you’ve chosen works, fine. If it doesn’t, maybe you will want to look at some other options.” No matter what happens, I don’t give ultimatums. I always think of one woman of my acquaintance who, when a doctor told her that he was “captain of the ship,” said, “Yes, but I have to decide if I want to get on your ship.”

My patients stay with me because I let them know that we are working together as a team. On the other hand, by the time they get to me, some of these people have an entire breast invaded by cancer, or a malignant melanoma as big as a melon, because in their past experience they’ve found doctors even worse to deal with than the disease. These are intelligent people whose response to physicians who screamed, yelled and tried to play God was to walk out on treatment. They had made the choice that they would literally rather die than return to the medical profession. I can only say to those of you who are having similar experiences—keep looking for the doctor who is right for you. Don’t walk away from the medical profession. It has too much to offer to be discarded. To doctors I would say, please accept these people and continue to see them no matter how much you may disagree with them. When you do, 100 percent will ultimately accept you and your therapy, because they will know that you care. It has worked for me with all the wide variety of patients I see.

Surgery can be a healing experience, as can chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments, if you see them that way. They can be gifts from God—in fact the Greek word therapeia means “doing God’s work.” That’s what I wrote in answer to a letter from a lady who said, “I decided after reading your first book that I’d let God heal me. So I stopped taking my medicine for high blood pressure and dizzy spells, fell down in the bathtub, banged my head and spent a week in the hospital.

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