"Mutual Learners"

Today, my local oncologist paused to speak with my parents and me. He is a kindly man, dedicated to his family and to his patients. Each year he hosts a party at Christmas for all of his cancer patients and their families. Thousands of miles from his homeland in India, he has contructed an oncology clinic where oncology services were once not available. He lost both parents to cancer and over a decade later, I can still recall my first appointment with him, attended by my three daughters and me. He told them that their Mother would be "fine" and that I would not be going anywhere anytime soon. Not meaning to offer false hope, I believe he just wanted to believe in his heart that those three little girls would not lose their mother to the cancer beast, as he had.

As he spoke with us today, he told my parents, "Stacie and I are mutual learners." I grabbed onto that terminology and digested it after he left the infusion room. As most of my family and friends know, I have read more about this form of leukemia than most any doctor will in his lifetime. Why? Because it is the ONLY cancer I am addressing. Especially local oncologists do not have the time to research hundreds of different types of cancers to remain abreast on the latest research developments. I have mini-medical degrees in hematology, oncology, and immunology. My life and disease have not afforded me the opportunity to ignore the shattering of my health. Leukemia has dictated that I delve into medical journals and libraries to seek answers to questions that my doctors do not have the time to research and answer. So, when my local oncologist coined and communicated this phrase - that we (he and I) are mutual learners, I smiled.

We have learned from each other. I have heard of several opportunities when he has taken something that I had learned about this leukemia and he applied it to the life of another leukemia patient. I am proud and pleased to know that. He has taught me the value of being compassionate and caring, never showing that he is concerned about a patient. Whether that is the best way to address the dying patient or not, he always musters words of hope and encoruagement to the most dire cancer case. He has taught me to remain positive even when circumstances may dictate negative dwelling on the disease.

Mutual learners - perhaps this is a concept that needs to be taught to medical professionals. Battling a deadly disease requires ammunition from both sides of the battle - from the patient AND the physician.