Take a Moment…

We recently published Nancy’s Promise, a newsletter which shows the scientific enterprise created from donations made by generous patients. I’d like to take a moment to thank all of those who participated in this endeavor. It’s been an incredible and successful journey. Today I reblog my earliest post as it is a promise to all of my Heroes.

DOCTOR MO IOWA

Let us take a moment to reflect on why we do the things we do.

It’s for my heroes.

For my patients that have battled melanoma or sarcoma and have helped move science forward. They truly are a part of every decision I make.

They are my true teachers, my inspirations.

Those who have suffered with an ailment that drives us to understand what makes it such. Those that help me help someone else because they dared to take on something new.

It is amazing to sit alone on a Tuesday night, thinking about things. I often sit in silence, and talk to those who have passed. What did I learn? What could I have done better?  What did their lives leave in lessons? 

I must admit that I miss my heroes as I sit alone on my couch letting my day settle. They motivate me and enrich a desire in…

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Muffled.

Cancer interrupts lives. It takes away from our present moment like a thief, stealing what was dismissed but is really precious. This is what she taught me when she came to see me today. I share with you an old blog. Muffled are the voices around me.

DOCTOR MO IOWA

This is a difficult blog for many reasons that I will not divulge. But I will take you to where I am. 

Immerse your head under water at a poolside. Around the pool you can hear the loudness of all the people around you. You dip your head to dive beneath the water. As you dive deeper these voices fade and become muffled. Submerged you know there is something out there but you are unable to understand it.  There is some security in not being able to hear exactly what is being said. In the water you feel somehow protected, but vulnerable because of this perceived security. Those standing outside the pool talking about you, trying to explain complexity to you. You hear a little but you choose to stay secure. This is where my patients go when they are diagnosed. When what I say to them does not quite…

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Tad

Today was the annual Tips for Tad fundraiser at Pints in Davenport, Iowa. This event honors the life of the late Tad Agnew and raises money for my melanoma research program. I made an appearance and said a few words. I’m re-blogging my post from last year about Tad in case you missed it. He was truly unforgettable.

DOCTOR MO IOWA

He was very young and it had recurred in his brain. Tad was playing on his computer when I walked into the room. He looked healthy, his eyes bright and beaming with intelligence. I sat across from him in the old cancer center and he asked me question after question. I connected with him instantly and we talked. He always came alone, never accompanied by anyone. I respected his independence. He looked things up on the internet brought them to my attention. My melanoma program was young then and new therapies were still not available. It was hard to tell him about death, to share with him the lack of treatments available and to tell about how clinical trials work. He took it all in and shared with me that he would like to try something. He participated in a trial only offered here in Iowa. He became an instant…

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Closure.

I just reread this ….I am touched too by what I write. Your comments have all made me feel special…..really….I am just that idiot passing through

DOCTOR MO IOWA

“I didn’t know I could talk to you” he said to me in the clinic today. We hugged and he sat down, “It happened so fast.” We were both fighting back some tears. “She was an amazing woman” I chimed, trying to find the right footing as we talked.

It was the end of my clinic and a family came to see me to find closure in the care of their loved one. This is a side of me that is very private and my voice is sharing this with you. My heart is not.  It is a rare event that I come full circle and have a chance to talk about someone who lived.

What is important to me in the closure of a patient who passes? I’ll share this intimate detail with you now.

When patients cross my path on their extraordinary journey, I deal with their cancer…

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Fog

I sat with my patient to discuss her progressive disease. It has now spread to many sites and it was deemed incurable. We had done several tests, and that much was certain at this point. I sat across from her and her mother. I started the conversation about treatment, but I felt I could not complete it. My patient got distressed and was no longer receptive to the information I was trying to relay. In addition to the tears in her eyes, the air between us felt foggy. I was not expecting her to “bounce back” and be with me in the session just yet. I wanted to say, “Go home come back in a week”, but I find that most patients want me to still speak after they’ve mentally left the session. They want me to go on a soliloquy penetrating the fog. I find that most want some instantaneous miracle to come out of my mouth. It saddens them further when I do not have that miracle. But I have to get through this conversation about the treatment, to get some sort of plan in place. All I want to say is go home and come another day.

 

Her mother took center stage with tears in her eyes and started asking questions to make sense of the decisions that needed to be made. Another set of ears to determine the next course of She pulled me in and pushed on the discussion in the midst of the fog that now clouds the mind of my patient. My patient was tearful, and her mind preoccupied and weary of what she is about to face. What do you say to someone who is young who has been robbed of the years yet to come?

 

A fog is blinding, the road that was clear is now murky. There are many dangers. I have never liked driving through a foggy day. I always say when it will end, having always to remind myself that it will eventually end. My eye sight limited, my vision obscured. My senses are heightened, ready to react, and my fears accentuated. I can only imagine the burden a diagnosis such as this places on the patient. When a fog descends upon your life, it’s not a highway, a road or an alley, but rather your life. I reflected on this, as drove in this morning through the thick fog that had engulfed Iowa City. The clouded roads, nowhere to hide from it, affecting everyone. I know that it eventually lifts but sometimes the feeling that it will not, overpowers. That is the time I wish I could tell my patient go home, and come out when the weather clears up.

 

I can’t lift the fog even if I try. The fog is in front of your eyes. The fog is in your way, the fog is in your life right now; but I know it will lift one day, and I hope that day is soon.