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Baylor > Medical Humanities > News
Medical Humanities Annual Lecture with Dr. Kay Toombs, October 15, 2008, BSB, rm. D109, 4:30pm-5:30pm
Aug. 11, 2008
"Living at the Boundary: Healing and Incurable Illness"
As a person living with incurable neurological disease (MS), I have thought a lot about the meaning of illness and disability and how best to respond to the challenges of chronic illness where cure of disease is not a possibility. In my reflections, I have also explored the experience of suffering, vulnerability, and loss of dignity - all of which are an integral aspect of serious illness and key issues with respect to debates on end of life care. I have argued that there is an important distinction between healing and curing disease. Healing relates to whole person care, to the preservation or restoration of a sense of personal well-being, dignity and integrity that is not dependent upon the physical integrity of the body. Even in the absence of cure, it is possible to promote healing. My reflections have now been further sharpened by the experience of sharing the last six months of my husband's life after he was diagnosed with cancer. Not long after being diagnosed, he told me: "This is a healing experience for me." In this presentation, I shall explore the insights I gained from this "healing experience" in the face of death - insights that have important implications for the way in which we think about life threatening illness and the care of the chronically ill.
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