I ran into Tom Regehr of Cast Canada at the grocery store the other day. At first I didn't recognise him as he had lost so much weight. It turns out that Tom had been diagnosed with throat cancer, had gone through chemo and radiation and had been fed a liquid diet through a tube for several weeks. What a thing to go through! As usual Tom had an acute observation and taken something positive from his life altering event. Tom pointed out that while the medical procedure treatments that he had received were top notch there was a glaring lack of emotional support or recognition of how this affected him as a person. The only slight recognition was a half-hearted offer for him to speak to a Hospital Social Worker. Tom explained that there was the emotion impact of receiving the initial diagnosis and contemplating that he may die, the incredible and unrelenting pain involved with the treatments and finally the message that he was now cancer free. One might think that this announcement of being cancer free would be a cause for celebration and allow the forgetting of the previous emotional turmoil but no - Tom says he was in the "fighting" mode to deal with the cancer and it's emotional impact and not yet ready for this news, welcome as it may be.
Tom feels very strongly that our health care system and society in general are not recognising the whole person and the emotional impact of such events. I think Tom has a very good point.
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