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MGH Cancer Center

What We Talk About [When We Talk About Cancer]

A Mass General Hospital Cancer Center Community Conversation

Optimistic

The “Optimistic” Conversation

Editor | 06-25-2014

Our conversation on Optimistic continues on, but let’s review what we have so far. This topic has provoked perspectives and comments with several similarities. Continue…

| Comment

The Essence of Optimism

Steve H | Administrator | 12-29-2013

I kind of hate it that ‘optimistic’ and ‘realistic’ seem to be set up as opposites. No one ever says ‘be realistic’ and means anything other than

Continue…

| 1 Comment | Comment

Optimism is Hope

Don D | Physician | 12-22-2013

To be optimistic is to see the proverbial glass half full. For me, optimism is seeing the sun rising on the horizon and

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| 1 Comment | Comment

“Hope” or “Cope”

Mara B | Administrator | 12-18-2013

Optimism is essential whether you’re a cancer patient, family member, or a hospital administrator.  In the field of hospital administration, I cannot recall

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| 1 Comment | Comment

The Power of Art

Megan C | Caregiver | 12-15-2013

With the differing degrees of illness and health omnipresent, it can sometimes be so hard to remain optimistic when working in a cancer center. Having the ability

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| Comment

Optimistic or Realistic?

Daisuke F | Physician | 12-11-2013

Being optimistic is not as easy a task as it looks.

As a clinician, I encounter many people who have been struck by serious illnesses. I am confident Continue…

| 1 Comment | Comment

Can my optimism be absolute?

Betsy B | Patient | 12-06-2013

Long before I started losing my hair, I did some research and found the cutest, most fabulously fashionable head scarves I could find.  After all, I am young and I care about

Continue…

| 5 Comments | Comment

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This is a place where anyone who counts themselves as a member of the Mass General Cancer Center community --- patient, family member, physician, nurse, researcher, social worker, care giver, administrator --- can come to read, think, and write about the words we all use, but which we don’t always understand in the same way. Often we use words and phrases that are common, that we use every day. Yet, their very familiarity creates the illusion of common understanding where, the fact is, we are frequently using these words in radically different ways, with radically different meanings. In our small way, WWTA is meant to help us work toward a common language and make the conversations we have about cancer more meaningful.

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