The big payoff for me besides seeing her
look so wonderful (20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter) was to
hear her sit down and treat us to a Beethoven recital. And her blood
pressure was 130 over 90.
Breast Cancer
I have worked with many young women with breast cancer; so many in
fact, that their faces and cases tend to blur. But whenever I think
about them, Kelly inevitably comes to mind because we became such
good friends. Like me, Kelly was an independent-minded back country
Canuck. At the age 26, she received a medical diagnosis of breast
cancer. Kelly had already permitted a lumpectomy and biopsy, but had
studied the statistical outcomes and did not want to treat her
illness with radical mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy because
she knew her odds of long-term survival without radical medical
treatment were equal to or better than allowing the doctors to do
everything possible. Nor did she want to lose even one of her
breasts. She knew how useful her breasts were because she had
already suckled one child, not to mention their contribution to
one's own self-image as a whole person. I admired Kelly's unusual
independent-mindedness because she comes from a country where
universal health coverage is in place; her insurance would have paid
all the costs had she been willing to accept conventional medicine,
but Canadian national health insurance does not cover alternative
therapy.
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