The Daily Q&A

Are you ok? What's up? How's it going?

These are the questions we quickly ask to each other everyday. We say them all the time with no realy meaning behind them. They are more like a greeting, like hello, than an actual question.
Since the questions have become so off-handed and nearly meaningless, so have our responses.

"I'm fine ... Nothin' ... goin' good."

So, when someone actually takes the question as an opportunity to release, it takes the asker a few seconds to catch up and recover.

I had a patient today that did just that. She was a 27 year old woman of latin descent who was apparently gonig through a rough patch in life. I won't go into the specifics of what she said, but I was in her room for at least 20 minutes. She talked almost non-stop , barely stopping enough to draw breath between sentences. I let her talk herself into silence ... until she felt she was done. She finished by talking about how all she's wanted for a month or two was someone to talk to. Some to ask "How's it going?" For someone to actually mean it.

Unfortunately, I still had to do my job and draw her blood after such a heartfelt conversation. I fel so sympathetic for her. I felt her pain. I could see the sadness behind her dark brown eyes. And all I could think while drawing her blood in silence (she was a little ... ummm ... apprehensive about the whole needle thing ...) was that I am really amazingly lucky.
Not only do I have a family that will lend their ears and give their support, I have friends that will do the same. I have people that will that will listen to my daytime ramblings when I've had a bad day. I have friends that will sit up with me til 4 am waiting for the moment that I will break my silence or decide to let go of my stoicism. Ther are people in my life that know me and know who I am, even when I don't.

I have people that will actually really mean it when they ask "How's it going?"

I left the lady with a hug and a business card with my name and work number on it. She probably won't call (or ever come back to that office ... she was a new patient), but at least she knows there are people out there.

And so goes the life ...