- With Mayo Clinic oncologist
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
"The magic of the electronic village is transforming health information. The mouse and keyboard have extended the stethoscope to the 500 million people now online." - Dr. Edward Creagan
The power of the medium inspires Dr. Edward Creagan as he searches for ways to share Mayo Clinic's vast resources with the general public.
Dr. Creagan, a Newark, N.J., native, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice medicine and palliative care. He has been with Mayo Clinic since 1973 and in 1999 was president of the staff of Mayo Clinic. Dr. Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was honored in 1995 with the John and Roma Rouse Professor of Humanism in Medicine Award and in 1992 with the Distinguished Mayo Clinician Award, Mayo's highest recognition. He has been recognized with the American Cancer Society Professorship of Clinical Oncology.
He describes his areas of special interest as "wellness as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-financial model" and fitness, mind-body connection, aging and burnout.
Dr. Creagan has been an associate medical editor with Mayo Clinic's Web sites and has edited publications and CD-ROMs and reviewed articles.
"We the team of (the Web site) provide reliable, easy-to-understand health and wellness information so that each of us can have productive, meaningful lives," he says.
Latest entries
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Oct. 30, 2009
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Stress blog
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June 13, 2009
Blog: Coping with adversity
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Some of the challenges we face cannot be easily "fixed" or remedied because of their complexity and the associated social, economic and health entanglements. So, what can we do?
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If the stress in your life is more than you can cope with, get help right away.
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As a hospice/end-of-life physician and medical oncologist, I often ask patients how they deal with some of these very difficult problems. A couple of themes emerge in their responses:
- A sense of meaning and purpose. This is the reason you get up in the morning. It may be as simple as taking care of a loved one or pet.
- A supportive community. In other words, feeling a connection to others. This is your family in the broadest sense, including that beloved dog or cat.
- A focus on moving forward. Often expressed as, "Okay, I am not happy about what happened, so I need to make the best of this predicament." In other words, focusing on what you can learn from an experience and moving on.
- Living in the moment. Embracing today and not looking too far down the road. After all, none of us can predict the future.
These tactics certainly seem to work for many patients. Are there other techniques that have helped you? Please share them with us.
4 comments posted
June 24, 2009 10:47 a.m.
Being a caregiver for my 69-year-old husband who has Parkinson's disease caused me to be hospitalized for 9 days due to physical and emotional exhaustion. The hospital also has outpatient group therapy which I attend twice a week. Fortunately, the program is covered by Medicare. It has been extremely helpful in making changes to the way I respond to my situatioin. I don't know what I would do without it.
- Sharon
June 17, 2009 11:50 a.m.
I echo the previous comment - look at what we have, not what we don't have. Each of us has something to be grateful for...for me personally, a good & loving spouse, a nice home & garden, a sweet doggie who loves me & my hubby, a job I like & am good at that pays fairly well, reasonably good health, some savings in the bank & a fairly decent 401K, good friends & neighbors, for starters. I try to remind myself everyday how fortunate I am & how thankful I am to have what I have.
- janet
June 17, 2009 7:59 a.m.
Being grateful for all the things that you do have--food, water, heat, shelter, reasonable health, lack or near so of pain, friends, being able to see/read/hear--all wonderful, beauty/colour in the world, kindness of others.
- anon
June 17, 2009 5:57 a.m.
So our hospice is in limbo, left up to the grace of foundation funding - we'll know in 7-10 days. We, a team of five total staff, focus on the homeless and those in shelters, refused by other hospice programs in a major Eastern city. How to cope with our stress level now? committed and interested
- egrace
4 comments posted