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.

He said he enjoyed his work – in particular the meaningful and intimate relationships he was able to build with his patients – but others did not always understand the work he did.

He saw his role as sometimes not "curing" by applying differential diagnosis, but helping his patients find ways to cope with their pain.

Listener Poet Yvette Perry

Association of American Medical Colleges

March 2021

Some houses can be fixed

Those who fix them will arrive in large teams

driving shiny vans

They’ll examine the ceiling stain and then

investigate the roof and then the pipes

and then the radiator on the floor above

Process of systematic elimination

they have chests of tools to tighten or

seal, saw out and replace anew

Curing the house of its ills

He arrives alone, after the teams leave the

house that refused fixing

He knows sometimes the house’s pain

Lives deep inside the spine and brain

Hard to get to with traditional tools,

His chest also includes faith in the unseen

energy to face the unknown

skill building connections

The house lets him in

Some houses can be fixed

Others, he’ll know,

Not cure but cope

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