I am good at many things, but I have never been particularly good at training dogs. Never saw much point in it really, since I love the laid back nature of hounds, deerhounds in particular. Apart from occasionally eating all of the seatbelts and the bumpers off my Suburban, and removing saplings from the yard… Continue reading For Lu
Category: Patient Stories
You Can’t Tell a Book
Apparently I am not the only one who has learned a few things from my patients. My husband surprised me and wrote this over the weekend, and I thought you might like to read it. “ I was a pulmonary physician at a Boston hospital when I first met Martin, a patient with advanced… Continue reading You Can’t Tell a Book
Dammit Janet
There is cancer. And then there is CANCER. The first refers to the ones we discover early, excise completely and move on—a tiny rent in the whole fabric of a life, easily mended or patched but never quite forgotten. But the second, CANCER in capital letters—these are the ones that can never be discovered early… Continue reading Dammit Janet
Bad Tidings We Bring
Yesterday was one of those bad days at work. With my resident, I had seen a patient in consultation a week ago, a very nice man with an evil cancer—metastatic malignant melanoma—who had been referred for post-operative radiation therapy. We were waiting for another test to be done which would help us with our radiation… Continue reading Bad Tidings We Bring
Men Who Stare At Goats
Fifteen years ago, I had a patient who was crazy. He called himself the Red Baron, and drove a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado around town, red with the biggest tailfins you ever saw. He wore a scarf, and goggles, and smiled and waved at everyone he passed on the road. Everyone knew he was a few… Continue reading Men Who Stare At Goats
Why Won’t They Stop Talking to Me About Sex?
I have recently checked the website of the American Board of Sexology, and I can absolutely confirm that I am NOT a sexologist. So why is it that my patients ALWAYS want to talk about sex? Old, young, male, female, gay, lesbian and transgendered—it doesn’t matter. This is a topic on everyone’s mind, apparently all… Continue reading Why Won’t They Stop Talking to Me About Sex?
What Does Your Mommy Do For a Living?
The year was 1997, and my youngest was having his sixth birthday. What he wanted for his party was for me to take him and his friends to the local amusement park. They would have free access to the rides, swarm the arcade, play on the ersatz beach with its immense man made waves, and… Continue reading What Does Your Mommy Do For a Living?
If Wishes Were Horses
For Missy Is there any woman alive who can’t recite the old nursery rhyme “If wishes were horses,then beggars would ride”? The line is etched into the memory of every little girl who ever wanted a pony, but its true lineage dates back to James Carmichael’s Proverbs of Scots circa 1628 when the original read … Continue reading If Wishes Were Horses
Who Wants to be First?
After much preparation, we opened our new radiation therapy department in September 2008. Many many elements and “players” had to come together to produce a new state of the art community cancer center. No detail was overlooked– the existing space had to be renovated to create a more “zen-like” work flow and feel; the front… Continue reading Who Wants to be First?
Fire and Ice
“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice…..” Robert Frost Sometimes there is a very fine line between doing too much, and not doing enough. I have been thinking about this lately as I watch patients go through radiation therapy. It’s not just the acute side effects that worry me with… Continue reading Fire and Ice