14.12.2020: Once upon a time in the 1990s, a medical student was going to meet his first real patient. While he had taken patients' medical histories many times before, this was something completely different. Now he would be going into depth, and for the first time he would use therapeutic dialogue as a healing instrument. That student was me. I was filled with nervous anticipation. My supervisor allowed me to read the referral. It was for a middle-aged woman, on a disability pension due to fibromyalgia and fatigue. She had been struggling psychologically after her husband had not danced with her at a...

18.03.2020: We are facing a pandemic, with a virus that we don't yet know much about. I am the mother of a child with cancer, and I am worried. I am a doctor and a mother of five young boys. We are definitely in the right age group to be coping well with the coronavirus, which of course applies to most people. Looking around me, it appears that the virus is not generally the main concern. That's not the case with me. Empty supermarket shelves are a long way down on my list of worries just now. In the week before the nurseries and schools were closed, I deliberated every day whether I should be sending my...

07.10.2019: Our daughter's greatest desire was to live normally – in the days she had left. Our ten-year-old daughter marches through the main entrance of Oslo University Hospital while her parents run after this strong-minded child. She is one of 4–5 children annually who are diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) in Norway, a lethal brain tumour. Our daughter envisions a future of 9–24 months, a time frame in which all the family members, all the pupils in her class and dance group are present and where life is to be lived to the full. The hope of an incorrect diagnosis lasts until she...

25.03.2019: Patients with terminal diagnoses need hope. The doctor's attitude may help enable a patient to find a meaning in life when time is running out. The doctor's gaze flickers between the patient – my wife – and the paper in his hand. He has been charged with the thankless task of communicating the result of the biopsy to the patient, who has recently undergone a tumorectomy. He has never talked with her before. The doctor starts by describing the diagnosis, a severe form of cancer. He then continues with a brief description of the limited range of treatment options, before concluding by saying how...

15.08.2018: Living with atopic eczema. As a child, I was often told that I had a beautiful face, and to be honest, I loved looking in the mirror – as children often do. Between the ages of three and four, I was diagnosed with infantile eczema but that quickly disappeared. At the age of five, I had hay fever and pollen allergy. That was a bit unfortunate because it meant that I couldn't be a farmer when I grew up, but generally it wasn't a problem for a city girl to keep away from hay. I coped reasonably well with the birch pollen season with the help of antihistamines. Some years later, I developed a nut...

28.11.2017: This is a story of how the pursuit of self-control ended in eating disorders and misuse of anabolic steroids. I encountered a health service that knew very little about steroids. My hope is that telling my story will enable others like me to be treated with greater understanding. As a teenager, I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, after growing up in a dysfunctional home, where my body was a constant topic of discussion. There was a lot of self-hatred and self-torture, and I yo-yoed between binge eating, vomiting and starving myself. At the same time, I exercised frequently and excessively...

21.08.2017: When I as a theologian write about health, it is for a very specific reason. I have become seriously ill. In my encounters with various aspects of the health services I have had some thoughts – reflections that are relevant not only to me. My diagnosis is motor neuron disease, which is expected to gradually develop into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A small leaflet that the hospital sent me describes the clinical picture. The main content is linked to the description of the bodily, biological processes that have become upset: motor neurons die and fail to relay the information necessary...

02.05.2017: When my father was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, he was told he could expect to gradually suffocate to death. Instead, his own end-of-life choices gave him a surprising level of well-being, both mentally and physically. My father was 87 years old. Full of vigour, in love, witty and quick off the mark. The disease developed rapidly, and his breathing became more and more laboured. Father accepted that his illness would run its course but wanted to defy the predictions of an agonising death. He believed that he could sort this out himself, if he could stay at home. He did not want to be in...

30.09.2014: If there is one disease I have feared all my life, it is cancer. I have always regarded it as the worst disease of all. Then I actually got it myself, and now I know that it’s a scary disease that causes suffering and pain and that often involves lengthy treatment and an uncertain outcome. But can there be something more? More and more people are diagnosed with cancer. It is one of the biggest causes of death globally. Approximately 7.4 million people die from it each year, and the number is increasing. Some years ago my cells decided they would start to attack themselves, and I was given a...

06.09.2011: I often see induction of labour discussed in the media. As a contribution to this debate and to discussions about patient safety, I would like to share the consequences this treatment had for me and my family. On the night of 20 May 2009 I gave birth to a baby girl who suffered hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury inflicted at the Women’s Clinic of St. Olav’s Hospital. I had a normal pregnancy up until nine days after my due date, when labour was induced using misoprostol (Cytotec). I learned later that this medication had caused overstimulation of the uterus, which harmed my baby irrevocably. A day...

08.04.2011: I’m reading a letter from a former associate Who has spent many years in Bhutan and Nepal Now the sole doctor in a hospital, His letter contains gripping stories Of a mother nearly bleeding to death postpartum The neighbours won’t donate blood, having none to spare The hospital staff steps in, four bagfuls are needed The placenta is removed manually Uterine atony. No halt to the bleeding even after injections It is stopped by a saltwater balloon The mother survives There, as elsewhere, two boys are beaten by their drunken father One dies, the youngest survives after heroic efforts A young man...