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Putting Knowledge Before Wisdom
"From inability to let well alone,
from too much zeal for the new and contempt for what is old,
from putting knowledge before wisdom, science before art and
cleverness before common sense,
from treating patients as cases
and from making the cure of the disease more grievous than the
endurance of the same,
good Lord deliver us. Amen."
-- Sir Robert Hutchinson
Harriet was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 82. She had her cancer surgically removed. The surgery alone probably cured her disease. However, an oncologist told her that surgery had given her an 80 percent chance of cure, but a year of chemotherapy would increase that chance to 90 percent. She opted for the chemotherapy.
I could not understand why she said yes to the debilitating chemotherapy regime at her age with her already 80% survival rate. However, she had an undying faith in the skill and wisdom of her doctors--to a fault.
Her chemotherapy induced incessant diarrhea and a 50-pound weigh loss, infected eyes, and abundant mouth wounds. However, she pushed herself onwards, carrying herself with dignity and grace, and living every moment fully.
Ten months into her chemotherapy, Harriet fell and broke her hip. In order to heal her hip, her chemotherapy was stopped. Her body then began to heal; her diarrhea stopped, her multiple infections disappeared and she gained weight. "I feel 100 percent better," she told me. "I feel like my old self again. I had planned to go to Europe once I finished the chemo, but I'm ready to go now. I don't think I need those final two months of chemo."
I totally agreed with her decision.
Three months later, after her fracture had healed, she did return to her oncologist. He sat down, held her hand, acted sympathetic and told her that all the literature supports a complete year of chemotherapy and that she needed to finish those two months. Because of that unrelenting faith in doctors, she agreed. A fatal mistake.
The very same day she finished her chemotherapy she was admitted to the hospital with a life-threatening pericarditis (an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart, constricting the normal beating of the heart). Pericarditis is a known complication of the chemotherapy she received.
The very next day, before I could get down from seminary to see her, she died. She apparently had dreamed that night that she was packing her bags for a long trip. She would need to get her wedding dress out of storage and have it cleaned for the trip, because there was going to be a wonderful celebration.
It may have been OK for her, but it was devastating to those she left behind--and it was UNNECESSARY.
Sometimes, you just have to listen to your gut. You know yourself better than your best doctor and if something goes against your very being, at least get a second opinion. We all do the best we can, but it's not always the right thing.
"From making the cure of the disease more grievous than the endurance of the same, good Lord deliver us."
By
Anne Brower
|
July 16, 2009; 11:28 AM ET
| Category:
Faith and Healing
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Posted by: HumanSimpleton | July 29, 2009 4:25 PM
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David Waters: Like depicting MASONS
Who are your so-called unanimous "ELDERS" of Jimmy Carter & gang?????
What a cheap & Jealous & Low LIFE of a Judeo-Christian deciet or is it Judeo-Jew Trick to discredit an good ex-U.S. president (raised with ex-slaves), aka "Mr. Peanut"!!
You should be deported, for Plagerizm & FALSE REPORTING or 'Influence Peddling' on this Public Media etc.., from wence Ye ancestry came from. Or
You should be fired by NEWSCORP.!
[][][]]][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][
David Waters: Like depicting MASONS
Who are your so-called unanimous "ELDERS" of Jimmy Carter & gang?????
What a cheap & Jealous & Low LIFE of a Judeo-Christian deciet or is it Judeo-Jew Trick to discredit an good ex-U.S. president (raised with ex-slaves), aka "Mr. Peanut"!!
You should be deported, for Plagerizm & FALSE REPORTING or 'Influence Peddling' on this Public Media etc.., from wence Ye ancestry came from. Or
You should be fired by NEWSCORP.!
Posted by: anti-davidwaters | July 22, 2009 8:35 AM
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Always, always review your medical condition with a Medline review before agreeing to any treatment:
Posted by: ccnl1 | July 21, 2009 12:33 PM
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My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent agressive chemotherapy. Because the disease was in the early stage, there was rapid improvement in her condition. However, the doctors insisted on continuing the agressive treatments even when tests showed that it might not be necessary.
Sure enough, she developed end stage renal failure because of the treatments which necessated additional treatments. She was so emaciated by all the treatments that she longed to die. She was mercifully delivered two years ago.
It was not her faith in medicine so much as it was her lack of understanding of its limitations that her to believe what the doctors say was the best way to go.
Posted by: MGT2 | July 20, 2009 10:17 AM
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My grandmother died with a chemo treatment in progress. The doctors kept pumping in the chemo even after she went into a coma.
Cases like my grandmother and the case described in the essay are why I have an advanced directive and a living will in place, copies on file with my husband, my daughter, my parents, my doctors, and my lawyer, and copies placed in my file every time I have any sort of procedure done that requires me to be hospitalized even for a few hours.
Posted by: lepidopteryx | July 20, 2009 8:57 AM
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The problem here is a refusal to accept mortality. At 82, you are playing with the house's money. An increase in survival from 80 to 90% means what when you are likely to die from unrelated causes in a few years anyway.
Posted by: edbyronadams | July 19, 2009 4:27 PM
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A horrendous case of medical malpractice - reason and common sense went by the wayside, replaced by either a zealous belief in the 'healing properties' of chemotherapy at all costs - or simply the knee-jerk impulse to milk the insurance for all it was worth.
Whatever happened to tailoring treatment to meet the needs of the individual patient? It would be worth a lawsuit to find out what was motivating this particular physician to over-prescribe treatment to the point of the patient's unfortunate and unnecessary death.
I went through a similar episode with my dying mother some 25 years ago - heavy cobalt treatments in spite of a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer.
How many times does the patient have to be killed by the cure before medical practitioners wake up to the voice of reason?!
Faith in the miracles of medicine in the face of either insufficent medical information and/or without strong patient advocacy, has been a fatal mistake for many a poor unfortunate.
Posted by: persiflage | July 18, 2009 8:34 PM
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I prefer knowledge to wisdom.
If I shouldn't, I'd like to hear from someone who prefers wisdom to knowledge, and then explain how he or she came about in possession of wisdom without knowledge.