they are both survivors

THEY ARE BOTH SURVIVORS
i think of them frequently
whenever i see her postings on facebook
she reads my blog frequently
occasionally makes comments on it

i keep up via facebook on her family
the kids as they grow up


so
i saw this picture posted on her facebook page
with the accompaning story

may i post this on my blog and write a blog
about your story

yes she wrote back
any time to
educate
help
provide hope
im in

here is in her own words on what happened to her
from p&h services stories on their survival clients

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on December 4th, 2008. Just 5 days later, I found out I was pregnant. My oldest daughter was just 5 years old. Who knew? You can’t have a glass of wine while pregnant, but you can have chemo! So…. when I was 12 weeks along, I had surgery followed by 5 rounds of chemo while pregnant. I gave birth to a perfect and healthy baby girl on July 25th, 2009, and when she was a month old, I started back with 12 more rounds of chemo followed by 36 rounds of radiation. I feel truly blessed to have been pregnant while going through treatment. Not all my appointments were cancer. I got to see tiny fingers and toes and feel her precious spirit with me every day. Having my beautiful daughters to focus on instead of the cancer has been such an amazing gift.


here is a picture she sent me after delivery


here is the family today

sometimes as a doctor
ive noticed this after retiring
there are patients stories that will remain with you forever
this is one of them

i think about them 
what would we have done

knowing what i know
knowing how i feel about things
i will admit i would have wanted to go a different direction
however
had she asked me in the office what she should do 
i would have never told her what i would have done

this would be a difficult difficult decisions for all of us

i think her and her husband and daughters
should be listed as true heroes

she will always have my greatest respect
for the decision she made

i would not been able to do it

now
people say to me all the time
you are so brave to talk about your diagnosis and being involved
in research studies

no 
i would say to them
this 
folks
is true bravery

wishing her and her ;youngest daughter and her familythe best
for the future

rarely
can you tell the story 
of two people being cancer survivors together like this 

true hero she is

the organicgreen doctor

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