About the Stories

These are fictionalized accounts of real encounters. On any given day, I have the privilege of meeting an amazing variety of people at what is often a very dramatic time in their lives. I become intimately involved in the very things that determine whether or not they live to see another day, and if so, what that day might look like. I get a brief glimpse into the life of each individual, whether they be patient, family member, friend or caregiver. I often wonder what the rest of the story is.

This is where this blog is born. My husband and I play a game sometimes when we are out. This game entails making up background stories for the people we see in public. We don't know them, but take the clues we see from their appearance, demeanor and interactions and make up an interesting backstory for them. It is storytelling with a prompt and harmless fun, unless you get a little drunk and talk a little too loud and the bartender happens to be friends with the woman at the other end of the bar that you just described as "the popular girl in high school who still thinks she is as pretty as she was back then." That can be a very uncomfortable moment.

Unfortunate faux pas aside, the stories you will read here are of a similar nature. I am an ER doctor and my interactions with patients and their loved ones last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, and then, with the exception of the "frequent flyer," I will never see them again. Many of those interactions have a profound impact on me and I find myself wondering about circumstances that led to that visit to the ER. I always, of course, ask the medical questions - when did the pain start, where is it located, what medications do you take, and so on. From these questions, I get the answers I need to provide appropriate medical care. Some questions are more personal, usually information needed to make the right medical decisions, but sometimes just to establish rapport. These are questions about what they do for a living or for fun, the meaning of their tattoo, who they live with and so forth.

The picture is never complete. In these stories I take the partial knowledge that I have of these people in a crisis time of their life, and, well, make the rest up. I try to imagine the details of the circumstances and emotions that led to this event, and I tell the story from the other side. Each story is based on an actual patient encounter.