Impatient Patient: Introduction

Alysa Cummings
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: October 4, 2009

Huh? Let me explain...

When I first got home from the hospital after cancer surgery #8, out of nowhere, this new phrase appeared in my vocabulary: impatient patient.

Over the next few weeks as I recovered, I found myself regularly repeating those two words (that I admit don’t normally sit together side by side)– in emails to friends, in conversations with family members. impatient patient. Yes, this aptly described who I was and how I felt at a particularly difficult moment in time.

But I’m the first to admit what a strange phrase it is– impatient patient. More than a bit oxymoronic actually, since many of us who wander in CancerLand are rarely if ever patient during the process of recovering physically, emotionally and spiritually from cancer treatment. Maybe the wordplay was part of what appealed to me.

So one month later, when impatient patient continued to resonate, I decided to explore the idea and do something creative with it. Which leads me to what you see here today: a new Oncolink Poetry Project that includes an Impatient Patient poem, along with a handful of related quotations and digital photographs, all available for your enjoyment in two formats – Flash or normal view.

Impatient or otherwise, my hope is that it speaks to you.

Impatient Patient - Quotes
Flash Video | HTML

Impatient Patient - Poem
Flash Video | HTML

This Poetry project is available as Flash or HTML. Please select which version you would like to view.