People are special

A middle aged woman with three children came in for pre-op rounds one afternoon last week. These rounds are pretty simple: we talk to the patient about why we feel they need surgery, explain the procedure to them, answer any questions, and then they sign the release forms.

This case was clear: she had had an operation a few months ago for an ovarian mass that was suspicious for cancer. During the operation they removed most of the tumor (which did turn out to be cancerous). But the lab reports showed that the surgical margins were not clear, some tumor had been left in her body.

They called her in immediately to schedule a second operation. When she arrived, her doctor explained everything to her, and told her that he wanted her to have surgery the next day.

"Oh, no." She replied, "tomorrow doesn't work for me."

We asked if the next week was better for her.

Nope, next week didn't work for her either. Couldn't we wait until April?

Her doctor explained to her beautifully how important this surgery was. That ovarian cancer can be aggressive, can spread quickly, that putting off her surgery could be really dangerous for her.

She was unmoved. This month just really wasn't convenient for her.

It took about twenty minutes of cajoling to get the reason out of her. And the reason?

She wants to lose weight and look amazing for her nephew's bar mitzva next month. And she gained weight and didn't look good after her last operation. So, long story short, there is absolutely no way to convince her to have the surgery before the bar mitzva.

Now because Israel is socialized, it's nearly impossible to schedule elective surgeries in a timely manner. This means that if she doesn't have the urgent surgery now, we might not be able to schedule it again until June.

She understood all this and still left without scheduling the surgery.

And I feel like we failed. And I feel that she let down her family, let down her body, let down the team of doctors that put a lot of thought and energy into her well-being.

It was disappointing.

But there you go.