The Secret History of the War on Cancer by Devra Davis

Author:Devra Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2011-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

A Breast Cancer Fund poster, banned in San Francisco in January 2000.The superimposed mastectomy scar is that of the author’s friend Andrea Martin.

11

Doctoring Evidence

You can observe a lot by watching.

—YOGI BERRA

“DEV? THERE’S A LETTER for you,” my husband called from Washington, D.C. I stopped to answer my phone as I was hiking the coastal trail of the Presidio just off San Francisco Bay. It was one of those nearly perfect northern California days, the sort of weather that makes you understand why so many people move to this state with its seductive balance of balmy wind and sweet air. The sun shone through tall, glistening pines. A warm, foggy wind wafted around the point of land that protruded right into the bay.

Most couples have routines. In our marriage, my irrepressible economist husband deals very well with bicycle repairs and finances. He could have become an accountant, but he had far too much personality. The two things he’s never been good at are delivering phone messages and opening mail. (We both could use a wife.) In twenty years of marriage and countless trips, he had never called about a letter. I knew something was up.

“Who’s it from?” I asked. This didn’t sound right. My husband had the tone of someone trying hard to sound like everything is okay. I knew he was about to lose it totally.

“There’s a letter from the mammography clinic. I think you need to call them.” Through the phone I heard a puff of resignation come through his closed, certainly frowning lips. A gulp and swallow followed. The unusual pause was a dead giveaway.

Or maybe we had lost our connection.

“Are you still there? Can you hear me? Hello?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m here. Did you hear what I just said? Do you understand me?” We were playing out one of those cell phone commercials where the other brand—the one you did not sign up for last week—is always the better one.

I stopped walking. I looked down at the brown earth and tree roots beneath my feet. I tried to take some of that grounding into my voice as I started to reassure him.

“Listen, honey. With these tests you know there are lots of things they find that really don’t mean anything at all, especially in somebody my age. It’s really nothing to worry about.” I was just fifty at the time.

“Okay. Okay. OKAY. I know you’re supposed to know all about this. Would you please just go and have somebody else check this out?” He resorted to that old staple of the well-rooted marriage, the borderline shout. The presumption of this raised volume, of course, is that I had not actually heard him. A louder voice is supposed to make me cave. It never works, but my husband feels he has gotten his point across.

“Listen, sweetie,” I explained. “Statistically speaking, I’m really just fine. Really.”

“Look, I’m not interested in your damn statistics,” he blurted. “Just deal with this, would you? Stop playing doctor! Go see a real one!”

I felt trapped by his concerns into taking action I didn’t think made sense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.