==JAPAN: KM== [Communication]

When you should congratulate someone, can you always say, "Congratulations" with all your heart? When I failed the entrance examination, I couldn't say so to my friend who had passed it. Envy prevented me from saying it with a smile. I knew that I should say something. However, if I did so, I thought so would sound like I did not really mean it. Not even one word came from my lips. Even though you know how difficult communication really is, you are still trying to do so, aren't you? Not being able to express your ideas and feelings would be more unbearable than struggling from pain. Communication gives you and me the energy to live. No matter how hard it is, something will die inside us if we don't do it. Let me give an example.
A woman whose name was Kikuko Doi made me understand the importance of communication. She was always in bed because her mouth and the muscle of her face, hands and legs didn't work. The disease's name was ALS. She couldn't do anything, much less express her feelings. Even her husband wasn't able to understand her, so they often got irritated with each other. She wished for death but couldn't even try to die by herself. Often seeing her face wet with tears, her doctor suggested that she use a new kind of machine which could type her feelings from the motion of her eyelids. Her eyelid was the only thing which moved on her whole body.
What do you think her first word with this machine was? It was "Thank you." In Japanese, "Arigatou." Writing only these few letters took as much as three minutes. Her husband and doctor tried their best to boost her spirits and help her get positive feelings toward living. At last she was able to answer their hope and express her feelings of gratitude. Since then, something has changed much in her heart. Her desire to live has become stronger. Even though her eyes were swollen from tiredness, she came to want to talk with her friends again because of this wonderful word processor. Communication renewed her life.
Words have a great power, and how we say them makes a great difference. I found this fact in the medical situation. Put yourself in the patient's position. What will happen if your doctor asks you, "You don't have any trouble, do you?" In this case, unless you have some big difficulty, you would agree with him and say, "No, I don't." But if asked, "What other problems are you having?" You might feel free to say something like, "That reminds me. Recently I have had a slight backache." That is to say, the latter question would make you feel at ease to offer much information even if it was trifling. Of, course, the intonation and the tone would also affect the feeling of the question.
Now I'm a student at a medical university and have a desire to become a doctor. Therefore, I need to think more and more about communication because patients are very sensitive to what their doctors say. Almost all patients have little knowledge about their diseases or injuries, so this makes them uneasy. Beside this, without good communication with their doctors and families, some patients will become very depressed and the quality of their life very poor.
Communication is necessary as long as we live. Even a baby tells what he wants his mother to do. He cries and cries until she is forced to take notice of him. And also a dying man will make wishes known to his doctor and family. It is very important that we make every effort to understand others and be understood by others. Do you know the story "The king's ears are donkey's ears"? One boy came to know that the king's ears were just like a donkey's, but he was forced to keep it a secret. Keeping his feelings bottled up inside him actually made him become sick. He was so frustrated because he could not speak out the truth. Then he got a bright idea. He dug a hole and put his face into the hole and shouted, "The king's ears are really donkey's ears." He shouted it many times. Finally he was relieved and got better. I must never forget how important communication is for my health and the health of others, and for my happiness and the happiness of others. I must try with all my might to be a good doctor who can communicate well with others, especially with patients.

COMMENT
This topic reminded me again how important and wonderful it is to communicate with others. And I fully realized the pain of the people who cannot communicate even if they want to do so. I think we who are going to be doctors especially have to make much of these matters. To have a good communication with the patients is to understand their feelings. The doctors won't be able to give an adequate treatment without knowing these. I want to be the doctor who can be in patients' positions and think about them from their views.

Yasushi Terayama