Dear Father,
Someone else got diagnosed with
end stage lung cancer-
Another nice, small, old lady who could
not stop saying
“thank you”,
as we but came to examine her.
She had a cough for a month, but it was mild,
and only when she was too breathless one day
did she come to hospital,
only to be found that half her right lung was opaque with tumour.
This extensiveness convinced me it was a lost cause,
yet an oncologist grabbed hard at the
thin straw of ‘chylous pleural effusion’
to urge a histological diagnosis, just in case this was treatable lymphoma.
But there was no easy way for a tissue biopsy-
Sputum cytology was negative, so was the pleural fluid cytology.
The only palpable lymph nodes were tiny and likely, only reactive.
Somehow, this oncologist’s passion for not letting
treatable cancers go, shone through
and she was brought to the operating theatre,
where the surgeons found a surprisingly large, and accessible lymph node for
excision under local anesthesia.
The pathologists were informed immediately and on standby
and a few hours later they had come up with differentials
- very poorly differentiated cells, but there was a chance.
This could be treatable cancer.
It was only 17 hours later,
while all the immunostaining set in that the verdict had come.
She indeed had non-treatable cancer and
would die.
The oncologist and his team prepared the patient and her family for the worst
and began palliative care.
I was very worried at the beginning that the number of investigations we were doing would be giving
her false hope,
giving her less time to prepare for a “good” death.
I was very worried about the toxic chemotherapy
which would make her last days
mere pain and suffering.
It turns out, we are all glad
we
gave her a chance.
The oncology team is hopeful Iressa would give her more time,
while the palliative team is working on preparing her for the inevitable..
Dear God, Father,
is this why
some of us are oncologists-
ever hopeful , never letting go of what’s treatable?
and why, some of us are palliative doctors-
strong in the face of death and even more so, in the face of
the dying?
And is this why,
I, who respond to “Doctor!”
feel this warmth in my heart,
and hear Your gentle prompting,
calling me to treat when I can, and care
when I can’t?
By “Hoping to aspire”.
Dr’s Blog is a feature of the CMG web site that aims to encourage interaction between Guild members. We hope to foster a spirit of community through the sharing of thoughts and personal experirences. The opinions expressed in these blogs are entirely those of the contributors and not of the Catholic Medical Guild of Singapore.
One Comment
Indeed there are many times when we feel helpless and grieved when we encounter patients who have incurable diseases.
At such times, we are reminded of the limits of medical science and that all our lives are in God’s hands. God’s plans are beyond our imagination but we take comfort in knowing that He loves us and no matter how difficult things may be, He will be there to hold our hands, comfort us and guide us every step of the way.
As doctors, we have the honour of letting God use us to hold the hands of His people, especially the hands of those who are suffering in their final days.
Let us pray that we will never fail to hold the hands of every one of these people who come along our way.