Norman Ng, Director of Patient Advocacy and Public Affairs at Healthcare Thinkers, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Looking at life from clinical experience: cherish the moment
After seeing so many patients, Dr. Shum feels more and more that life is short. Many people will default to living to be 80 years old, but in fact, not everyone can have a long life. Therefore, we must cherish every moment, say warm words to the people around us in a timely manner, do meaningful things, and never let ourselves be left with regrets of ‘too late’.
‘Clinically, I have seen too many patients full of remorse before dying, the most common of which is ‘relationship regret’ – a rift in the relationship with family and friends, but it is too late to repair. For example, there is a pancreatic cancer patient who comes alone every time he has a follow-up appointment, and his wife never shows up.
I didn’t see his wife for the first time until he was finally hospitalized, and she told me that she hadn’t slept for three days, afraid that her husband would leave as soon as she closed her eyes, and begged me not to add medicine, fearing that the medicine would speed up his departure. That moment was really embarrassing: Why do you have to wait until the last moment to regret not reconciling earlier?’
The last thing I want to say
In the past twenty years, she has seen too many people regret it at the end of their lives – regretting unspoken love, unmended relationships, and relatives who did not have time to be together. So she wants to say to every patient and family:
‘Cancer is no longer scary; it has evolved into a long-term disease like diabetes, and there is really a lot of hope. Cancer is a wake-up call for life, reminding us to pay attention to our bodies, cherish the moment, live in the moment, say what we want to say now, and hold on to what we want to hug tightly. Life has a limited time, don’t let yourself go to the end before you realize it’s too late.’
Dr. Shum Cuiyu only hopes to be the glimmer of light beside patients and their families in the dark years – a tiny, but persistently and warmly leading the way forward, giving people hope. This is Dr. Sum, an oncologist who treats diseases with medical skills and love.”
More posts featuring Norman Ng.