After months of being ill and being held hostage to a procedure that is six months away at best, I turned my frustration into a poem.

I am old enough to remember

When medicine was an art, not an algorithm.

When a physician’s touch was more diagnostic

Then, radiation or resonance.

When the first question was not rate your pain from 1-10,

But how has your pain affected your life?

When a physician would not hold a patient hostage

to a procedure for 6 months before offering some potential relief.

When a physician did not sit across from his patient staring at a computer screen

Instead of pulling his chair close and looking his patient in the eye.

I am old enough to remember and be grateful

For the true healers in my life

And to weep for the mechanics of “modern” medicine.

Please share your own stories if you like.