This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.
He said he enjoyed his work – in particular the meaningful and intimate relationships he was able to build with his patients – but others did not always understand the work he did.
He saw his role as sometimes not "curing" by applying differential diagnosis, but helping his patients find ways to cope with their pain.
Listener Poet Yvette Perry
Association of American Medical Colleges
March 2021
Yosef the Builder
Some houses can be fixed
Those who fix them will arrive in large teams
driving shiny vans
They’ll examine the ceiling stain and then
investigate the roof and then the pipes
and then the radiator on the floor above
Process of systematic elimination
they have chests of tools to tighten or
seal, saw out and replace anew
Curing the house of its ills
He arrives alone, after the teams leave the
house that refused fixing
He knows sometimes the house’s pain
Lives deep inside the spine and brain
Hard to get to with traditional tools,
His chest also includes faith in the unseen
energy to face the unknown
skill building connections
The house lets him in
Some houses can be fixed
Others, he’ll know,
Not cure but cope
