Why does this happen to me?

Recently I had a patient who was a commercial pilot, let me call him Mr. Pilot. Mr. Pilot developed blood clots one time after flying the long international flights, and was put on blood thinner, unfortunately it caused bleeding in his knee joint. He was grounded and can not fly anymore. He was very frustrated and asking when he can go back to work. "Why does this happen to me? I have been eating right, exercise regularly, I do not smoke, I do not drink, I have been good! I have never been sick before. Now I can not fly."

Most patients are in denial when they are 1st diagnosed with a chronic or incurable disease. They are frustrated and can not accept the fact that they are sick. But this can happen to anybody, no exceptions, I explained to him. Even a physician will get sick. The best way to deal with it is to accept it and treat it, and get used to a new way of living. This is easy to say, it will take long time to process the whole information and cope with it.

I remember one time an older woman told me, nothing has happened to you YET. Yet, that means something is going to happen, there are going to have curveballs threw at you in your life. As you are aging, something is going to happen and it is out of your own control. The most important is how you get over it.

Mr. Pilot is going to be on blood thinner all his life, he probably can not fly the plane anymore, this is going to be a life changing event for him. It is very hard for somebody can not do what he loves and is capable to do. I hope he can find new values in his life, he is still very young and has long way to go.