*The Breast Cries*
Oh, my love.
I am grieved that I hurt you.
I am supposed to protect you.
Not injure you.
I am outside of you.
I am over you.
I am around you.
I am to shield you.
Yet the cancer cells in me
Are so unrelenting.
I need surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
I don't mean to hurt you,
With the rays and the potions.
*The Heart Cries*
No, my love.
When you see the hurt in me,
It is because I reach out
And wrap myself around you,
To protect you.
I cannot myself take the cancer from you,
But I can wrap myself around you
To hold and comfort you.
And shield you from the damage
Of radiation and chemotherapy.
I know the rays and potions
Are meant to cure you,
But I know they can also hurt
The healthy parts of you.
If you hurt I hurt,
If you heal I heal.
I don't want you to hurt alone.
It is my honor to hurt with you.
It is my honor to hurt for you.
*The Breast Responds*
No, my love.
Do not hurt for me.
Do not hurt with me.
Let me hurt without you,
For my hurt is temporary,
And I will heal.
I fear your hurt is irreversible,
And you may not heal.
If I cannot protect you,
Let me introduce you
To someone who will.
*The Heart Responds*
Yes, my love.
Introduce me.
Let me meet
Our cardio-oncologist.
Show me the way
To our preventive cardiologist.
Show me a most excellent way
To protect a woman's heart.
SHERRY-ANN BROWN, MD, PHD, is Fellow of Cardiovascular Diseases and Instructor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.