Endless Currents

These members of the Wellness team in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado each spoke about the importance of community and connection.

They had formed this unit over the summer in response to the pandemic.

“Everyone has something in common because of COVID, and everyone is being more vulnerable sharing how isolation is affecting us,” one member said. “Talking with our colleagues is sometimes the only social interaction we have, so it matters a lot more right now.”

“Being in residency is a tough process. You need a ton of grit to get through it,” another member told me. “We want to build a culture of support and invest in people’s health.”

“There’s lots to know and learn about the brain. It doesn’t follow a textbook,” said one of the doctors on the team. “To live with such uncertainty and now to live in a world of uncertainty… In some ways our patients are a lot better prepared for the unknown.”

Another doctor I spoke with said: “Now we know that stress can lead to psychological injuries that can lead to physical injuries, and we don’t want people to suffer health issues before taking a moment for themselves. We want people to know that they can talk about what’s on their mind. The goal is not to teach people how to live—the goal is to give them the opportunity to do what they want to do.”

Listener Poet Ravenna Raven

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

December 2020

Our brains are like the ocean--

there’s so much we don’t know

about these vast expanses

of endless currents.

Neurology teaches us humility.

It’s important to

name the uncertainty,

celebrate small victories,

help patients sleep,

laugh through the grief,

share kindness, poetry,

music, humanity,

find moments of tranquility.

More Poems & Stories

The Waiting Room

Every day, I try to see through the patient lens, and I ask: what can we do to change this broken system?

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Captain of My Ship

He had been a primary caregiver for his father, doing all the hard tasks

Caregiver's Notes

She was very proud of her daughter and has hopes for “a bright future that’s as pain free as possible”

We Can Be Kind

“I’m trying to focus on doing little things to make people feel better during everything that’s going on in the world,” she told me.

what gives

“It’s hard to see others struggle,” she said. “How can I help with their struggle without struggling myself?”

Black Girls Sing of Freedom

"I'd tell her it's OK to be loud...it's OK to challenge and to bring all of you into these spaces where no one looks like you..."

Delicate Hope

She was in the depths of transition and change in this “concentrated time.”

Safety Is A Six Letter Word

Retired from the military, she was brought back into nursing during the COVID pandemic.

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New Year’s Evolution

“I'm continuously questioning: did I do it right?" she said. "I’ve always done a good amount of second-guessing, but I’m re-learning how to show up differently.”

Wrapped

“It’s weird,” she said. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

Libation

"It changed me; It changed the way I look at life," said this woman about her profound experience during her pregnancy.

Our Own Legacy

“I’m not in a good place with everything happening in the world,” this poemee said.

An Impossible Choice

“It’s been more challenging than normal lately,” she said. “I’m only one person. It's a struggle for me to say no, but I can’t do everything that’s being asked of me right now.”

Forward

"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.

Recursion

"I've been processing how to make the most of the small amount of life we have to live," said this physician.

Who's Noticing?

"I feel like this journey is unfolding before me,“ he said.

Feeling Small

“I like feeling small,” he told me. “Nature has always made me feel small.” He described the sense of wonder that feeling gave him.

To My Daughters, Who Will Need to Know

This physician had recently started a new job when the pandemic hit.

Decision Fatigue

“I feel like I have decision fatigue,” she told me. It was normal for her to make many choices at work, but COVID had dramatically increased the number of medical decisions she had to make at home.

Vibes

“I know ‘vibe’ is kind of a nonspecific term, but I think about people’s vibes all the time,” he said.“ Sometimes you come into a room and it’s just off.

Yosef the Builder

This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.

So Much More to Medicine

“Our constituents are uniquely affected by the pandemic,” they said. This poemee was an educational psychologist who spoke about how much they missed working in person with med students, healthcare staff, and medical educators.

Re-set

"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.

Words of Silver

Although he had been through many stressful experiences in his life and recently, he always held onto his positive outlook. He took particular care to use words intentionally, paying attention to their connotations, so that his positivity extended to those that he interacted with as well.

A Kind Reminder

“There’s a constant feeling inside that I should be doing more,” she said. “But I also want to be kind to myself and recognize all that I’ve given.”

Endless Currents

These members of the Wellness team in the Department of Neurology at the University of Colorado each spoke about the importance of community and connection.

Stayin' Alive, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

She said she wanted a poem about the importance of CPR. As both a nurse and a CPR instructor, she spoke about how the rhythms of certain familiar songs helped her students internalize the rate of compression required.

Caregiver, Care For Yourself

He brought the tools of mindfulness and self-care to medical students, many of whom had been studying all this past year, 10 hours a day, day after day, in isolation.

Change of Pace

The pandemic had forced this woman to slow her life down drastically. Before, she’d travelled around every month for work, never stopping, working hard because she cared about her job. The slower pace created by social distancing had reminded her to cherish everything that life had to offer outside of work.

Forbearance

He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness. For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship. However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.

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