Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: metastases

  • Two words in the patient portal

    Paul RousseauMount Pleasant, South Carolina, United States He lost twenty pounds from January to June. Not purposely. Still, he was pleased; at seventy-nine, he looked svelte, and younger. He lost another twelve pounds from July to December. His lips grimaced. He was a stick figure, his bones rising like periscopes amidst clumps of sallow skin.…

  • Metastases

    Paul RousseauCharleston, South Carolina, United States The fact Isthey are there,gathered like aclutter of popcorn,some kernels,others fluffy white swirls,but they are there,bound to a globof shambolic cellscurled in the cornerof the right lungbeneath seamsof tar and tobacco. PAUL ROUSSEAU is a semi-retired physician and writer published in The Healing Muse, Blood and Thunder, Hektoen International,…

  • Lost in translation

    Jonathan XianHouston, Texas, United States At the start of residency, you should make a list of five things you value most and think carefully about which ones you can live without. Cross them off one by one until only one is left, and that one is what you get to keep. My one thing was…