RT Journal
A1 Rickert JB
T1 QUiet caring
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2012
FD August 13
VO 172
IS 15
SP 1129
OP 1129
DO 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.2138
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2012.2138
AB 
During a walk about the oncology unit where I was receiving antibiotics for pneumonia, I encountered an elderly woman, her arm splinted and wrapped by a sling and burdened by intravenous and oxygen tubing. She was slowly and painfully making her way to the family lounge with her nurse and daughter. I helped them into the room, and then we all sat down. I asked her about her arm. She told me that she had broken her wrist in a fall and how upset she was to hear that she needed surgery for the fracture because all she really wanted was to go home and experience a little peace and comfort. She was leaving the hospital that day, and the surgery was planned for the following week. We conspiratorially spoke of our diseases: she had ovarian cancer with metastases to her liver; I told her I had undergone a second stem cell transplant—this one from my brother—for recurrent non-Hodgkin lymphoma and was now prone to infections, particularly pneumonia. She had persevered through debulking surgery twice and both standard and intraperitoneal chemotherapy, and she understood that she had little time left.