Who Would Like an Oncology Job?

We had just gotten my mother out of the hospital, where she had spent the last four days, because her potassium was so low, her heart was having a hard time pumping blood to her body. He was a very nice man who answered all my questions from the very beginning, and filled me on the history of what was really going on, not the half story my mom told me to keep me from worrying. He explained that she had anal cancer and that they had to give her six rounds of radical chemotherapy. He went on to say that she was doing fine and that they were gonna wait three weeks, let her gain her strength back and then do radiation. Surgery was out of the question as she had a previous bout with cervical cancer, and the surgery to remove that tumor had caused too much scar tissue. He explained everything so well. By the time we moved into our new home and got settled, she was done with her radiation and we could relax, and enjoy the summer. She came to stay with us for a month, soaking up the sun and playing with her granddaughter. But you could see the effects the treatment had on her body. Dr Raghaven told us that she would be swollen in certain areas, lose her hair, be cold all the time, and she was. Finally she went back to work. October came, the big day to tell if she was cured, and we all knew she was, when he told her that the cancer had spred to her lymph nodes. We were devasted. But she said she would lick it. So she did her chemo, as a out-patient this time, and everything was going good. She felt great, her hair was growing back, and then after New Year I got a call, the EMT’s had been called and she refused to go with them. Told my aunt she was gonna punch her in the nose. She was disoriented. I called Dr. Raghaven and he told me it sounded like her kidney’s had shut down. We got her to the hospital and that morning Dr. Raghaven told me there was nothing else we could do, even if they did dialysis, the tumor was too big. He stayed with us until we moved her to Hospice, he held my hand. Terrified, I asked him if my daughter and I needed to be tested for this cancer, and he told me no, it came from the Human Papillomavirus,(HPV). He sent flowers to her funeral. From the moment she became his patient to the day she left this world, he remained by her side giving her the support, and relief she needed, and that makes him one special Oncologist.