A Sick Mother

After a hectic year as a 4th Year medical student who spent his time running through different medical and surgical specialties, I finally passed my exams and now being 'promoted' to a final year medical student. Currently I am doing a 7-wk placement in a friendly hospital which is situated in a small lovely town called Abergavenny. I just finished my medical rotation and I am now doing my rotation with a general surgeon who has an interest in breast operations.

One of my routine weekly activities is to attend my tutor's breast clinic. As you can expect from the name of the clinic, some of the patients who came to this clinic had breast cancer. So, it was not unusual to see patients crying in the clinic. However, today i had a slightly special experience which i would like to share with you.

An extremely lovely lady who is in her 80's has a lump in her right breast was told that it is very likely that the lump is going to be malignant based on the clinical and radiological examinations. However, the diagnosis can only be confirmed once the lump sample is analysed histologically. So she was given an appointment to come to see my tutor when the result is ready and she was advised to bring a family member along. Then she started to be a bit emotional and tears began to flow from her eyes. My tutor tried to reassure her that he will do his best to help her as he thought she was worried about the condition. However, she then asked if she can come alone on the next appointment as she doesnt want her children to be upset and worried.I was very touched when she said this and I thought she must be a very good mother as she tried to face the problem on her own and did not want to worry her children, even she knew that she might not cope with it. I really wish her all the best and hope she will survive the disease.

In less than 2 weeks time I will go back to Msia to meet my family. And I hope I can spend more time with them when i get back.