Authors

  1. Brown, Sherry-Ann MD, PhD

Article Content

*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.

  
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