When it all hits home

Today, I learned that Dana Reeve, the wife of late Christopher Reeve, and a writer and actress in her own right has passed away after a fairly short battle with lung cancer. In the medical community, physicians perhaps have developed a double standard with regard to lung cancer, the number one cancer killer for both men and women in North America. Because of its strong association with smoking, the first thing that is mentioned after lung cancer is the smoking status of the patient. If the patient denies such history of smoking, the next question would be, "Are you sure?" This approach makes one have less pity for the lung cancer patient, because we are assuming that this is a "self-inflicted" problem. With other cancers, such strong associations are not immediately appreciated. As such, the healthcare provider may have more pity for the leukemia patient than the lung cancer patient. It is noteworthy to say that while lung cancer is mostly associated with smoking, 10% of patients afflicted with this disease have never smoked in their lives. Dana Reeve was an example of this. She made this known publicly perhaps to try to break this impression of a self-inlicted disease among healthcare providers and lay people alike.

My father-in-law is suffering from lung cancer. Every time the news of a lung cancer patient death is announced such as Peter Jennings and now Dana Reeve, it worries me that he may lose his fighting spirit. Having someone in the family with the problem makes it very real. It is not a story that you can casually browse on-line and dismiss. It penetrates you very deeply. I was examining these feelings today in the OR while providing anesthesia for a mastectomy in a 50 year-old breast cancer patient. Suddenly, the scrub nurse stated that she can no longer be in the room. She took the sterile gown off and on her way out of the room whispered in my puzzled ears, "I have breast cancer."

It all hits home.

Here is a picture of my father-in-law with my wife this January: