I suppose most people dont remember exactly how they spent their sixth birthday.
But tragedy has a way of not allowing you to forget.
It was August of 1990.
Image courtesy of the writer
This particular day wouldnt be filled with friends, playgrounds, snack time, naps, and swimming lessons.
This birthday would be different.
Granny will be here to pick you up soon!
Pulled from summer camp to spend the day with my mom and grandmother.
Just me and my two favorite people.
My biological father had left my mother, brother, and me shortly after I was born.
We had lunch that day at Furrs Cafeteria, one of our favorite places.
They brought out orange Jell-O with whipped cream and a candle.
I hate orange Jell-O.
She was eventually placed on hospice care and moved in with my grandparents.
One month later, we went to my grandmothers house for dinner.
Gatherings at Grandmas were a staple of my childhood.
Birthdays, holidays, random weeknightsall filled with family and Hungarian food.
Although weeknight dinners there werent out of the ordinary, I knew this one was different.
Relatives I had never metaunts, uncles, and cousins from far out of statecrowded around the table.
This would be the last time I saw my mother alive.
I crept upstairs and stood outside the door to her room.
My mother died in September 1990, a short five months after being diagnosed.
We had no health insurance.
I had already made the decision to pursue post-graduate training in a residency program in obstetrics and gynecologykismet.
I had the fortune of spending some time at Cook County Hospital in Chicago during my residency training.
The majority of the patients I saw were uninsured, just like my mother.
I saw her in every patient I diagnosed with advanced stage cervical cancer.
I saw myself in the faces of their children as I recognized their looks of helplessness.
Tragedy has a way of not allowing you to forget.
I miss my mother profoundly and deeply.
In medicine a great deal of our effort as physicians is targeted at disease prevention.
Fortunately in 2006 an HPVvaccinewas introduced with the hopes of decreasing the incidence of HPV-related diseases like cervical cancer.
it’s possible for you to learn often to get screened for cervical cancer here.
I cant help but think of my mother when Im counseling patients about the benefits of vaccination against HPV.
My advice to that patient (and to any patient) would be simple: Get the vaccine.
There was no vaccine available for my mom when she was growing up in the 1960s.
And that certainly would have changed my life.
Advocacy isnt something we are explicitly taught in our medical training.
And hopefully in the process I will have made my mother proud.
He completed his obstetrics and gynecology residency at Northwestern University in Chicago.
In addition to fellowship training, he is also obtaining his masters in clinical research degree at OHSU.
Ian is passionate about resident and medical student education, medical humanities, and health care for the underserved.
This story is part of a larger package called Vaccines Save Lives.
you’re free to find the rest of the packagehere.
