By Larry Puls @Larrypulsauthor
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| Sisters with Ovarian Cancer; Family History of Cancer |
A year had passed. I had not forgotten the young woman who lost her battle to ovarian cancer. Her smile was still visible and I could almost recall her laugh. Thirty-two-year-old patients are particularly memorable. So few women die that young due to gynecologic malignancies. Many of the details about her final days were still fresh on my mind. In many ways, the more tragic the scenario, the more you remember. But her death in my career was not in
vain, for I learned much about the chronic use of chemotherapy and its long term side effects. Things you don't always learn in training. She changed my style of practice. Her bone marrow death in the midst of treatment has to this day, influenced my use of drugs, their duration and their dosing, well past her life—even now. Her death I believe, has helped me help others.
