Today Is Not Another Black Monday!

Today I brought my mother to see her regular doctor for a second opinion on her cancer diagnosis. He declared the growth in her thyroid was at best 50 percent malignant! So there is a fair chance it can be benign?

How could my ENT doctor friend be 99 percent sure her growth was cancerous? This was the question I asked all afternoon.

At home, I called another doctor friend. He said with a firmness betraying a certain concern about the first diagnosis, “Unless there is a comprehensive test, and it is on paper there is cancer, I will go to the other extreme. There is no cancer! Not even 50 percent! See a thyroid specialist!”

After one week of despair, suddenly it was more hopeful! There was always hope of course. But studied hope from the medical world was something else. I was confused but took it all in my stride. I have heard worst stories. I called my ENT doctor friend. He was still confident of his diagnosis.

Last Monday I took the diagnosis from a doctor as the ultimate medical pronouncement. A second opinion was more a routine next step. Today, the medical facts are up in the air. Today is not another black Monday. It is a day for more questions.

Kirk Douglas presented an Academy Award today. He is old but agile. I hope his son is recovering well from throat cancer. My mother questioned the need to undergo such extensive tests for her cough. I told her the facts just short of the cancer diagnosis. I don’t know how to tell her. We will take it one day at a time.

There are no facts, only interpretations.
– Friedrich Nietzsche