hearing patients' stories

On Thursday we went across the street to the Bolwell Medical Center to find patients who might be eligible for the study. Both the patients I visited yesterday were older and generally in worse shape than the ones I had seen before. One had just had surgery and was feeling pretty miserable, but his son was there to sign the paperwork and he seemed really excited about our study and research in general. The other was an 80-something woman whose only symptoms had been an atypical seizure during which she was totally fine except she couldn’t read. She was getting her nails done when she realized she didn’t understand the magazine even though she could see perfectly fine. She said it was like it was in a different language. She’s going into surgery today. They think her tumor is a meningioma, which is one of the benign kinds, fortunately. She also seemed interested in the study, but was very apologetic about the family history part. Because her mother died in the Holocaust, she knew very little about that side of the family. Karen reassured her that any information helps, and we chatted a bit more, about how her father had survived the concentration camps and escaped with her to America. It was a heartbreaking story.