The first time the social worker asked if she could check in with me was this past summer during chemo. We chatted some, and after a while she got up to leave. Then she parted the privacy curtain, stepped out, poked her head back in and said, “Oh, I forgot to ask. What are you most afraid of?”
Patients are often criticized for what are called “door handle comments” — those comments brought up as the health care provider is walking out of the room and already has one hand on the door. They are often doozies — a patient who has had a very straight-forward appointment might state that they have been having chest pain. Or a myriad of other disclosures that, had they been revealed earlier on, would have directed the appointment very differently.
Health care professionals do it, too.
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