>Bill, no matter how deeply the specialists "get involved" with their patients, at the end of the day they can go home and don't have to live with the direct consequences of the illnesses the patients have.
I can (and have) seen both sides of the argument here. A friend has recently given up her job as a nurse in Oncology as, after years of being on the outside, she got too overwhelmed by the suffering of some of the patients and the support that she had to give. Sure, she hasn't a colostomy but neither has she been able to function as a wife, mother and member of society for the past six months. On the other hand, she probably won't wake up every day with the same worry that another friend with MS has about being there for her children. It's not a particularly useful argument. I know enough doctors with their own medical problems to know that.
