I’m not even sure how one would go about delivering a grim prognoses like this.

Delivering it, or tending to it day-to-day, really.

See, we have this friend/acquaintance that is a pediatric nurse. She’s in our Sunday school class and has a bright beautiful family.

But here’s the thing: She works at Hospice.

I asked her how she could possibly do such a thing day in and day out.

Do you know what her response was?

She said: “I have no idea. It amazes me everyday. I think I was just born for it.”

I mean, palliative care, for children?

I just can’t even.

Agreed. Under the age of 40 – there are few words.

During my residency, I had sat with countless patients and families to discuss grim prognoses; it’s one of the most important jobs you have, as a physician. It’s easier when the patient is ninety-four, in the last stages of dementia, with a severe brain bleed. But for someone like me—a thirty-six-year-old given a diagnosis of terminal cancer—there aren’t really words.

-Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air (Amazon)