Not PC today

This is emotional for me. My brother and mom have both passed away from lung cancer. Let’s knock on wood now please. Silva’s dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after I knew her. She smoked and quit and started again and ….? Her brothers smoked/smoke. No one stopped after dad was diagnosed. Farid shook his head. He doesn’t smoke. But smoking was a deal breaker when he met Silva. So she quit…We visited a prominent religious statue high on a hill in Beirut. There was a long picturesque funicular ride to the top. Silva was there to pray for her father. Lung cancer is fatal so we know how this ends. Hope. It’s in us all. We never give it up. The alternative is too painful to contemplate. It’s surprising to me. Most physicians do not experience death too often. Patients die. But it is not something that dominates a medical practice. Emergency physicians, of course, see plenty. And in a sad way I do too. Head injury, stroke, aneurysm, and brain tumors all take a toll. It’s very difficult to talk about death and dying. No one dies. We save everyone. And the public thinks we perform miracles every day. See? It’s on the news. But in real life reality, we pray. We hope. And we accept that life is fragile.