Don’t Get Attached To Your Patients.

E get why.

Sharon Stephen
3 min readSep 7, 2024
Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash

My first rotation in Paediatrics residency was the Oncology unit. It was a super overwhelming and super stressful posting.

I was still new, so I was trying my best to get to know the patients well and just be a great resident.

My first patient was Julie.*

She was a cute 8 year old girl who was being managed for Leukamia. She had started the initial rounds of Chemotherapy and had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks before I joined.

I quickly got attached to her, she was smart, funny and she was very brave. It’s quite physically and emotionally stressful to have to take Chemotherapy and deal with all the side effects, but she handled it quite well.
A few weeks later, she was discharged and she was so happy to go home.

I was happy as well, because she had entered remission.

Remission was only the beginning of a long journey though, she still needed to come for check ups and the other phases of chemotherapy.

I saw her from time to time, she would look for me very excitedly. And she’d give me the cutest shy hugs.

She was always so full of life and very happy and playful. She had witty jokes for a kid and anytime I saw her, it just…

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Sharon Stephen

A young Nigerian woman, sharing her thoughts and feelings, while hoping that you find solace or solidarity in her written words. 💜