A Tragedy of Modern Medicine

I want to share with you a tragedy of modern medicine. Yesterday Cecily and I attended the funeral of the 43 year old daughter of two of Joe's and my oldest friends, Robert and Judy Grimes. Kristi, a truly beautiful and loving special education teacher, died of ovarian cancer. 

Remember Gilda Radner? She also died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

Kristi, one with a high tolerance for pain, went to the doctor with pain in the abdomen. The doctor gave her antibiotics and told her to take tylenol for pain. An ultrasound or CAT scan at that time could have identified the real cause for the pain and perhaps saved her life. By the time they decided to find out the real cause for her pain, the tumor had grown huge. The surgeon burst the tumor while removing it and the cancer spread throughout her body. No chemotherapy worked because the cancer was the aggressive type and whatever chemo was administered slid off the cell. The pain was excruciating. No medications could stem the pain and yet she had a smile for everyone. Robert and Judy are skin and bones from their own very real pain and the constant care they gave their precious daughter. Finally Kristi asked to be taken to the hospital and its hospice care. There she queried all who came in to care for her if they knew the Lord and Savior she served so well all her brief life and soon would see face to face.

On our drive to Elba yesterday we drove through torrential rain and I was reminded of the song "Tears in Heaven."

Time can bring you down

Time can bend your knees

Time can break your heart

Have you begging please

Begging please

Beyond the door

There's peace, I'm sure

And I know there'll be no more

Tears in heaven

Judy told me Kristi awoke once to find her doctor there and said "I did not want to wake up here." So the words of this song I sang yesterday are truly meaningful.

My chains are gone

I've been set free

My God, my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love, Amazing grace

The Earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God, Who called me here below

Will be forever mine

Will be forever mine

You are forever mine

The point of this post is to remind all my female friends of the necessity of taking charge of your health. My mother at 53 had a hysterectomy where they found a fibroid tumor that had become a sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer. It was "well encapsulated" meaning it did not burst. She lived to be 89. When I was 46, a fibroid tumor caused me to have excessive bleeding caused by a huge fibroid tumor. I had an emergency hysterectomy and told them to take ovaries and uterus. I did not want to take the chance that I would meet Gilda Radner's fate. When Cecily, my oldest daughter, was just a bit younger than Kristi she had a cancer scare and the doctors in PC wanted to do her surgery in two phases after bursting the tumor. Perhaps they wanted a smaller incision. She went to Birmingham and the cancer doctor did her surgery. Praise God she did not have cancer but she did have a total hysterectomy so as not to take the chance. My mother's three sisters had fibroid tumors and hysterectomies. We do not know if we have that gene that makes cancer a greater probability, but just looking at Mother's experience has led me to warn the women of our family to have their children early and do not be vain enough to care about the size of incision or negligent about letting the gynecologist know about the history of our family.

And I am telling you, my dear friends to be conscientious about your own health. You matter.