A Standing Invitation to Join the Conversation

First, thanks to all who shared their health-related stories for our inaugural issue of Please See Me. We received many excellent submissions from patients, providers, and healthcare consumers around the world. Many submissions came from voices that have not traditionally been heard in the healthcare space supporting the need for a platform like this. Interacting with authors and artists here reminded me that those of us privileged to work in healthcare need to ensure everyone feels welcome to join the conversations being had about their health. I hope that readers on both sides of the care continuum can use the work contained within this publication to understand every storyteller as a person first—thus the title and mission of our publication, Please See Me.

We are learning that healthcare stories can be used as powerful catalysts of connection and change because they reveal experiences many readers can relate to. They ground us in our humanity, and can create lasting bonds strengthened by the empathy felt when opening our hearts to the joys and sorrows of others. Over the last decade, I have been invited into the lives of so many patients and providers through their stories. These experiences have been both humbling and career-altering for me. I have been moved to laughter and tears while interviewing patient advocates Helen Haskell and Cheryl and Paul Douglass on camera, by reading the words of Sorrel King, author of Josie’s Story: A Mother’s Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safer, and working with Barb and Bob Malizzo on their family’s story of loss to medical harm has reinforced what a fierce love for family looks like. All of these stories transcend healthcare. They are the stories of our lives that define us.

The writers and artists included in this issue readily take the baton from those who have shared health-related stories before them. They expand what a conversation about health and healthcare can look like widening the lens for all who tread here. Caitlin Farrell, DO, discusses finding her calling as a physician while caring for prisoners in Chicago in her nonfiction essay, In the World. Fae Kayarian, a behavioral neuroscience student and young researcher studying the pathology of memory talks about how important ‘the color blue’ becomes when that pathology cuts too close to home in her poem by the same name. And while interviewing photographer and triple-negative breast cancer survivor Cat Gwynn, I was reminded that stories and narratives can be conveyed in the stillness of images alone. All of these moments reinforce how stories can connect us to another person or world in ways that data and facts will never achieve. In our first issue, you will see connection and meaning transferred in silence, in images, in poetry and in prose. The intent is to remind patients and providers that all our stories matter no matter how they are delivered, and that they can be used for healing if given the space to be heard.

Thanks for reading! We look forward to hearing the voices inspired by the theme of our next issue, which will be Pain.

Tracy Granzyk is the editor in chief of Please See Me.