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Payton Sancrant

Narrative Medicine 3361

Professor Phelan

16 September 2019

My Mom’s Bestfriend

I remember sitting at the kitchen table doing my homework, my mom cooking dinner

when my mom got a phone call from her best friend as she always did they called each other

every day and talked for hours. But something about this phone call didn’t seem quite right my

mom quickly ran outside to the deck where she appeared to be pacing abruptly and crying.

Danette had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer they couldn’t really diagnose but it was

treated as Cervical Teratoma, an extremely rare germ cell cancer normally affecting men and

children.

I was very confused at the time being dragged to multiple doctor appointments and seeing

this once strong woman hooked up to a machine for 4+ hours at a time looking helpless and

unable to do the simple things that you and me take for granted. I remember sitting at these

doctors’ appointments seeing countless different doctors in the span of an hour all quickly

coming in to check Danette’s vitals and make sure that the chemo was working to some degree.

They would joke and laugh, and you could see the old Danette shine through a little bit. Danette

would go through these doctors’ appointments 5 days a week for a week straight and then she

would get a little break. My mom, me, my sisters and Danette’s daughters would attend as many

of these as we could because my mom didn’t want Danette to have to go sit alone.

After about 2 months of intense Chemotherapy Danette again called my mom saying

things were looking up and that the doctors want to try to remove the cancer. A few weeks later
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Danette went throughs surgery where they removed the tumor. Things were looking up from

here she was still finishing up chemo therapy and we thought we could see the end of a long

grueling journey.

Well that was not the case because when Danette finished her chemo therapy she went

through another CAT Scan where she lit up like a Christmas tree. The cancer had metastasized to

her lungs and brain and was nowhere near gone. Danette was told that she had about 4 months

left to live so we took that and ran and planned to go visit her in within the next two weeks.

Danette didn’t even seem scared she just wanted to give her kids the best last four months with

her.

Just 2 days before we planned to go see her I got home from school to my mom crying

Danette had been rushed the hospital in the middle of the night with shortness of breath where

she was uncomfortable all night and passed around noon. I couldn’t help but feel my mom’s

grief just 2 days before my mom was supposed to go have a great week with her she passed my

mom unable to say her goodbyes. We thought we had 4 months when in reality we only had 2

weeks.

It was hard not to blame people to think had they known what to diagnose the cancer as

would Danette still be alive. Did they treat it wrong? I know they are doctors, but you couldn’t

help but wonder. Danette once said, “of course I could never win the lottery, but I get one of the

rarest cancers they can’t even diagnose.” 6 years ago, my mom lost her best friend to cancer.