A tribute to Teri from the national Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association

I was aware that APAMSA students were going to honor Teri in some format, but imagine my surprise when I discovered the insert (below) in the program late in the day (how unobservant I can be when focused on my talks).  Teri would be and I was very touched.  I immediately sought out the organizers Pinyi and Sophie and thanked them.  Some 350 students came to beautiful Palo Alto (shorts and flip flops student attire) in the brand new Li Ka Shing Meduica Education building and attended the national conference.   I co-.founded national APAMSA with 5 medical students in 1995 and still feel that it is my baby, now maybe grandbaby.  Jhemon Lee is doing an admirable job a president of the advisory board try to herd accomplished and involved Asian American physician advisors.

In one session on bone marrow registration by Asian Americans, I spoke entirely about Teri, reviewing her clinical course, how she lived in the present, uncomplaining, her bucket list, her impact upon others, her living wake, the minority issues around BMT, and her peace of mind at the end, when she decided not to continue her hemodialysis.  There were many tears, including my own,.  It put a beautiful face with a horrendous medical story to highlight the critical need to expand the minority bone marrow registries.

In a second session on profiling and stereotypical Asian American medical students as passive. Asian American students in general tend to be quiet based on a culturally appropriate active listener role in small groups.  However, this 'quiet' is subjected to interpretation of their clinical performance as ... disinterested ... lack of fund of knowledge... and incompetent ... even failing rotations.  This misinterpretation was validated by a senior faculty (non-Asian) who serves as an academic advisor to many of Asian American medical students and a senior internal medicine resident, both there at Stanford in 2011!.

The most important was to interact with friends (Winnie Chu SF, Gordon Chang Palo Alto) at dinner, Steve by phone and  former high school classmate Joan, ( Paul) by phone, family (Teri's siblings Terri Lin and Tony and Terri's son Greg, Cindy, grandkids Christian and Darien - full of vim and vigor) and airline seatmate over the weekend and gain fresh insight on how to proceed with my life.

Winnie & Gordon (separately):  "You have a unique opportunity.  You should take a sabbitical or leave of absence for 3-6 months to recover from the exhausting journey and find yourself, even if it leads to things different than what you now do, even if not a specific goal but just a path."

Several:  "Teri gave you a gift by achieving her peace."


Terri Lin:  "I will have a memorial for her locally."

Steve:  "Teri felt you became much stronger over the year and a half.  It was really important that she saw that you could live on your own, before she let go in peace."

B:  "I can begin to see that in a Buddhist sence, that she had all she needed in the end, a peaceful state of mind despite the constant pain, the destruction of her body, the disability and poor quality of life, and the constricted life outside the hospital ..."

Rick (airline seatmate):  "Life is mysterious.  Teri and you are both on new journeys, it is just that you can't send post cards to each other."  [I break out laughing at that unique spin.]

Although it was emotional on my first foray to a meeting in over a year, it was filled with meaningful interactions, needed feedback, invaluable insight, and proactive advice.

It was, a positive weekend away.