George Beauregard
This article is different from the typical “health care industry” topics covered by this forum.
My Sunday morning routine usually involves having a cup of coffee and downloading the latest version of the magazine on your iPad.
The cover of the February 13th edition of Time Magazine immediately caught my attention because the title reads “Our Cancer Mystery. Why Make Us So Young Now”. There are four people on the cover: their name, cancer type and diagnosis age.
But I see below that exists on the surface of the constraint. I'm so familiar with it. Suspect. Worried, confused. uncertain. sad.
Despite the overdue period, a major news magazine finally put it in the front and in the middle. Call for action.
On September 14, 2017, I stood in a ward in Boston when my former healthy son, Patrick, received shocking news that he might have stage 4 colorectal cancer, which was further tested. Severe diagnosis is the desolation of relative 5-year survival rate relative to 5-years. Like Schrödinger's cat's cognitive simulation, the life of my beloved son is now lying in a sealed box with a hammer hovering over the toxin bottle. Will it fall off, smash the vial, kill my son? I can only be an observer. I desperately wanted to be the one in the box instead of him.
Father and medicine are indispensable to my identity. During his three years of senior care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, I had to be his father first and provide emotional support with love and hope. The physician consultant part is a secondary role.
Despite Patrick's spirit, enthusiasm and maximum effort breathing the last breath in his childhood home, and despite his reassurance, I was in pain and thrust into great sorrow, not realizing that the final acceptance would slowly weave through sorrow, and I would gain a subtle understanding “before and after.”
As I mentioned in my 12/6/2024 post on this forum, I didn’t think much about early-stage cancers during my many years of working in clinical practice and physician executives. News, especially since the summer of 2023. But millions of people still don't know this is happening.
Writing is the best way I express myself, so in early 2020, I started writing to help myself browse what happened to Patrick. As the global phenomenon of early cancer expands, I feel compelled to tell my son’s inspiring stories and raise awareness about early cancers, and the need for a significant expansion of screening. Over the past three years, I have written a book called Nine o'clock reservation: A doctor's family faces cancer, Published earlier this month, I participated in CRC Awareness Month regularly. This is a book about family, love, loss, science and spirituality. NBC's Craig Melvin Performance today Co-host, generously wrote the foreword. Three months after my son died, Craig lost his 43-year-old brother.
Many books have written about cancer. From patients receiving treatment to family members or other caregivers, to doctors treating patients, to researchers who want to change the patients being diagnosed and treated. But this is unique. Part of the memoirs and tributes, spreading diary entries from my son and others in the family. Part of the book aims to educate the public about the dangers of early cancers, and to help provide a roadmap with examples of loved ones’ struggles for cancer, and to call on the medical community to take action to lead the crisis.
My son’s life should not be defined by cancer, but how he reacts. The most inspiring thing is how he became a strong public advocate for cancer research screening and funding.
I hope THCB readers can find time to share information about this book with family, friends and colleagues.
Thank you, Matthew and THCB provide this forum to introduce my story.
My website is that you can buy this book there or on Amazon. My appearance on Today's show is here.
George Beauregard, DO is an internal physician whose experience includes over 20 years of clinical practice as well as leading organizational strategies and clinical programs
