"Write Your Best Chapter"

We are sometimes asked by our patients about their prognosis. How much time do they have? While we may never know the exact answer to that question, we often have an estimate. Is it helpful to share that information with the patients? Can we assume that they actually want to know? In this episode, which is the first of two part series, I will share with you how to best approach those questions so...

We often make assumptions about people. People often make assumptions about us. How do they make their assumptions? Are those right or wrong assumptions? Could it be because of how we live our lives? Is there a disconnect between what matters to us and how we live our day to day lives? Is it possible that if we lived our life on purpose and mindfully, when our time comes, we would be more ready to...

Can you pause to learn what's most important even in the Emergency Room? My first guest is an ER physician who is also a board certified palliative care physician.  Dr. Kate Aberger tells us her story of how she came to practice medicine the best way she knows how. She tells us how you can always have a medical pause when stakes are high. I am very excited to let her share her highs and lows of li...

We do not want to get older. There are so many birthday cards making fun of getting older. We become despondent when as we get older, we become slower at life. As runners, we run slower. Our eyesight starts to go. Our hair turns gray. Our body starts turning into a shape of its own. I want you to know that aging is a privilege. We will talk about how we should not regret getting older. It's a priv...

As palliative care physicians, we know how to hold space. In this episode, I will talk to you how it feels to hold space. I also talk about how it feels to be on the receiving end of when someone holds space for you. As physicians, it is our duty to know how to deliver difficult messages or have hard conversations. 

When I started talking to friends about starting a podcast, they all wanted to know one thing: who is my audience? Was I talking to physicians or was my goal to reach patients? It is a difficult question. The truth is I believe if you are going to be struck with an illness in your life time, and you may die because of it, you should listen. I want to normalize conversation about life and death. I...

Hope cannot possibly be inherently bad. In an earlier episode, we talked about how 'Hope is not a plan'. But, is there anything else we could hope for?  In times of serious illness, are we hoping for the wrong things? If we are putting all of our energy for fighting a battle we cannot win (Death), are there other hopes that can add life to our living days? How to ask questions so we can get to tho...

How do you talk with patients when the stakes are high? Can you establish trust with the patient, without taking away their hope, and aligning their wishes and goals with the medical treatment options we offer? In this episode, we will talk about how the words we choose to communicate with patients allow us to have more meaningful conversations such that both parties get the best outcome possible....

When we are diagnosed with a terminal illness, we all hope for longer time. Even when odds are not in our favor, somehow, we believe that we are immune to what's to come. Somehow we may get to cheat death in the end. It's my experience that 'hope' ends up blindfolding us from the reality of our lives. Hope keeps us from making the right decisions to get us the ending we would want for ourselves. B...

In an introductory podcast, I will introduce myself to you. I am a palliative care physician with 20 years of experience. I have practiced medicine in Michigan, Arizona, California and now Hawaii. You will hear about how I became interested in caring for seriously ill and dying patients. Why it matters to me that when struck by an illness, we should all have a say as to how our lives should end. ...