mary

MARY

mary is not her real name
its been close to 20 years since i first met her
as my patient

she was a single mom working to make it and to
maintain her health insurance which she would
need frequently over the next several years

no matter what happened to her she always had
this smile she would flash at you with her
sense of humor
even when things were going not too good in her life

she was always an inspiration to me and i used her
story frequently to encourage patients not to give up

mary wish i could use her real name was diagnosed with
an aggressive form of breast cancer at the age of 33
she had a teenage daughter at the time
not sure at her diagnosis if she was single yet or whether
the separation occurred after the diagnosis

she fought the diagnosis and the disease by herself

when i first met her she wore a wig as she had lost all
her hair from the chemo
and had had a bilateral mastectomy and
had had bilateral breast reconstruction that was
successful in their appearance

she continued to work as she needed her insurance and
had to raise her daughter

later she developed metastatic lesions
the biggest was a grapefruit size lesion in her pelvis
treatment did not make that lesion go away

she found someone who would aggressive treat this
lesion that involved surgically removing the lesion and
leaving her a large hole in her pelvic bone

over the time that i was her physician she did not have a
recurrence in that area or elsewhere

but she had severe daily pain in that area
a lot of nerves go through the pelvic area

she was the first patient and the only patient that i took care
of that required such large doses of strong meds to control
her pain
i never thought twice about writing those prescriptions
im sure some dea person somewhere was monitoring my
prescribing such high doses

over the 7-8 years i was her primary care doctor she never
had a pain free day but she had a day and several more

she was able to watch her daughter finish high school
attend college
get married and
provide her with grand kids to enjoy in her last years

mary died last week
i presume it was from the recurrence of the breast cancer
but im not certain of that

she was an inspiration to me and to others who heard her story
she fought hard to live as long as she did
she was not afraid to try new aggressive treatments to live

there will not be a week that goes by that i wont think about
you mary

am glad you had the time you had and thanks for allowing
me to be part of your life

the organicgreen doctor