PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tanushree Nair
TI  - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
AID  - 10.1370/afm.2956
DP  - 2023 Feb 07
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 2956
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/early/2023/02/02/afm.2956.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/early/2023/02/02/afm.2956.full
AB  - Being a resident is hard. Being a resident dealing with a recent breakup is even harder. I wrote this piece after a serendipitous encounter on Valentine’s Day with an elderly woman who embraced her messy journey to finding love, no matter her age or circumstance. We learn a lot from our patients: from their bodies, physiologies, and illnesses, we learn to become stronger clinicians; from their stories, traumas, and emotions, we learn to become more full, well-rounded humans. Looking back, I think about how easily I almost missed this heartfelt connection by being absorbed in my usual checklist of tasks for a new hospital admission. My patient’s keen insight into her own romantic life taught me a vital skill in both medicine and personal relationships: the importance of being open to the unexpected.