Too Close To Home

Yellow School Bus: Affecting one intimately and personally

She has never left my mind. Whenever I see a school bus, I think about her and her family. 

She had a rare cancer that spread so quickly and it consumed her life. She had two small children in primary school, a first and a third grader. She was a devoted mother and a patient who did everything right to keep going. She traveled 2 hours to get her cancer treatment with her husband after she put her children on the bus. She was not in shape to be out there in the cold but insisted. The chemotherapy regimen was an all-day regimen that required her to be at the center in the morning and leave near dinner time. She lamented not being able to get the kids off of the bus. 

As we age as clinicians, we walk the life our patients walk, not cancer battle, but oftentimes life itself. I have two kids that are the same age as my patient. We laughed about how silly our children were and talked about how it was fun to do homework with them after a hard day of work.

Now, whenever I put my kids on the bus, rarely because the bus comes after my office starts, and see a yellow school bus pass by, I think of her and all those who are struggling with this terrible disease.