Indexing Title: OLEYSON’s Medical Anecdotal Report [04-5]

MAR Title: A Shoulder to Lean On

Date of Medical Observation:  July, 2004

Narration:

It was Sunday morning when I received a text message from my professor and adviser way back in college during medicine years. He referred to me his helper, a 46-year-old female complaining of breast mass on the left for almost a year.  As I saw the patient, she was crying because she never knew what to do with her illness. Upon physical examination, the breast mass measures 4 x 4 cm with skin ulceration and with palpable nodes. The diagnosis then was Breast Cancer Stage II-b (T2N1M0).  Fine needle aspiration biopsy was done and advised the patient for a close follow up. 

After one week, official biopsy result revealed ductal carcinoma.  Patient was referred to our service consultant and was scheduled for modified radical mastectomy.  The operation ended up successfully, after which the patient was subsequently discharged. She made a  follow-up a week later asking what would be her chance of survival, our future plans for her treatment and  if she will be undergoing chemotherapy or not.  She was quiet for a while, suddenly her tears dropped over her cheeks saying she has no one to turn too.  I calmed her down and explained her condition. The plan was to wait for the official histopathology result of her breast to determine if she would undergo chemotherapy or not.  It was as if i'm seeing a blank face as she nervously awaits for more information.  I told her if ever, she would undergo chemotherapy, will she be able to sustain it for 6 cycles? Then she broke into tears again and asked me back if I could help her in anyway.  I felt sad because I am only duty bound to help her with all the knowledge I gained from my profession and I cannot promise her of my financial support.

I paused for a minute and thought back all of the things my other breast cancer patient’s did when they are in the same problem. I just told her I know a medical representative who is willing to give her a discount on her chemotherapy.  Furthermore, I taught her some ways how to get help from government agencies, NGO’s and philanthropist who would be willing to support her chemotherapy if ever she will be needing one.  I provided her the medical abstract so she can file it as soon as possible while awaiting the result of her biopsy. 

Insights

Discovery

Learning from experience is the best teacher to gain knowledge.  We learn a lot from our patients especially those who have been there and went thru the same process. We must be thankful for them for sharing their experience and being able to share their experienced to other patients.

Reinforcement

There are times some patients really make my heart melt, I learned that they are there not only to seek for some treatment, not only to know what medicines they have to take, to make follow ups, I learned that aside from being inquisitive and informative about their sickness, I must need to go beyond what is inside of them, what they feel, what they think. It will make me feel real better not only as their doctor, but as a confidant as well.

This time, I have to take an extra effort to make them realize that doctors are there not only to treat them, that they may be able to seek emotional support during their depressed moments  and also to inform other colleagues on what attitude we must show if ever their patients suffer the same thing.

Stimulus,

Formulation of a breast cancer support group will be a great help to our breast cancer patients.