Two Patients Face Painful Truths
When Stephen left the doctor's office that day, he felt validated by Doctor Walk. This can often be the best feeling a hypochondriac can receive. He might have even forgotten his symptoms that night while thinking about his upcoming hospital stay.
When his father found out, he threw down his newspaper and slammed the door. The frustration had gotten to him. His wife fixed a cup of coffee.
**** Patient Two: Mark Gonzales
Mark had been in the Cancer Ward at Rush Hospital for two days. He, like 27,000 other Americans, had been diagnosed the previous year with chronic leukemia. The nurses had poked and prodded him. He didn't know what to do anymore. Therefore, he cried. He knew that his father had died of cancer. Finding out that his case was chronic also, caused him to feel helpless. Nevertheless, he felt hope in that the doctors were still causing him to do repeated hospital stays, tests, and treatments. This had already been his third return to the hospital.
Although he was feeling well for over a year ago, many symptoms had begun to develop that put Mark in a hospital bed fighting for his life. He had to go through bone marrow exams, along with every other test performed by hematologists, oncologists, and pathologists. No longer was he certain what they were going to do. He knew that he felt pain. Also, he just wanted to go home. Yet, with chronic leukemia, chances were that the abnormal blood cells in his system would recur and bring him back to the confines of a hospital bed. His mother brought him books. Concentration would not come for him.
When first diagnosed with leukemia at the age of nineteen, Mark was an active college student. Before long, his health deteriorated. One day, he actually collapsed during a simple volleyball game. He never would have dreamed that it was more than a little dehydration. Mark hadn't been looking for symptoms of leukemia because he didn't feel the need to do so. He didn't even notice the importance of the red spots developing under his skin... maybe, it was a rash. Now, he was certain, life as he knew it was over. His mother constantly worried. She had first lost her husband to the disease and now, she was nursing her son through it.
****
The hospital decided to put Stephen onto the oncology ward, as that was where most of his tests
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