I’ve updated my Global Apology to reflect how I feel now, so let me share it with you here. I’d really love your feedback, so we can customize the Healing Medical Trauma class. I’ll post this to my Facebook page, so please respond there if you have anything you wish to share with me about how you’ve been hurt by the medical system- and what you feel you would need in order to begin to heal.

I’ll start with my personal apologies, most of which are aimed at people who knew me back when I was seeing 40 patients/day in a busy managed care practice. I’m so sorry to that kid I chewed out in the grocery store after I had been on call for 72 hours- the one who couldn’t get my bagel scanned for the life of him, which led me to spew, “If I did my job the way you did your job, there would be dead people everywhere.” It sucks that I demeaned that kid, and I feel awful and ashamed about it all these years later. I’m sure there were others- nurses, medical students, and my own family- who got that kind of insulting behavior from me when I was exhausted, burned out, and angry that nobody stood up for my right to care about my most basic needs, including me.