I LIGHTEN UP

Had a great day on Thursday, and my husband really helped. Did three colonoscopies, then picked him up to drop off some forms at the Catholic School where we want the kids to go this fall. They’ve had an OK run at public education, but they’ll do better, they both will, in a smaller, more controlled environment.

We went to lunch in town, before I was scheduled to start my afternoon patient hours. I explained how guilty I used to feel taking time for lunch, but now felt justified, as I had added an additional day of patient hours and planned to fill days I wasn’t operating with office procedures, making for a six day work-week. Besides, we said in unison, just like Terrence and Philip, “I have CAN-SA.” Morosely we joked about my diagnosis, how we should have kept that life insurance, and whether this would ever amount to a good parking spot!

I went to the office, and was sobered when I had to tell a 62 year old woman who complained of bleeding hemorrhoids that she had a large rectal cancer just above her hemorrhoids that was the more likely and more critical source of her bleeding.

I decided to call an old colleague of mine. We were chief residents together, and we still kept in touch via e mails and IM’s. This was a sensitive issue, though, and I wanted to talk to him and hear his voice. He warned me to get out of my comfort zone, to treat this diagnosis with the attention it deserved. He urged me to get a second opinion. He mentioned surgeons he knew at Fox Chase Cancer Center, near where he practices, or recommended I find someone top notch at Memorial. One thing I can say about gynecologic cancers, he said, is that they should be attended to by specialists. GYN oncologists operate more like us, more like general surgeons, than general practice OB/GYN docs. You don’t have to be at a place where you’re known, in fact, that can jynx you, being taken care of in the community where you’re well known. You’re going to be fine, because you are a strong, good person, but I am so sorry to hear that. I guess we’re all getting old, but please have it taken care of by the best you can find, and a specialist.

At least he didn’t say “At least they got it early.”