I Am a Cancer Surgeon. Then I Became a Cancer Survivor. Then Coronavirus Arrived.
Dr. Mehra Golshan was due for his own cancer checkup when the pandemic hit
I am a cancer surgeon at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute and a recent survivor of colorectal cancer. My treatment was aggressive and harsh and lasted an entire year. When I was finally able to return to work this past fall, I never thought that less than a year later, our world would be turned upside down by Covid-19.
For patients who are in need of health care unrelated to Covid-19, the fear and uncertainty is palpable. As a recent cancer survivor, I need time-sensitive cancer surveillance, testing, and close monitoring, which involves regular blood tests and imaging scans. When Covid-19 started spreading like a wildfire in Massachusetts, I was due for my semiannual checkup — at the same hospital where I also work. The appointment was scheduled months ago, before the pandemic. I was supposed to spend the morning getting my tests and then go to my day job of seeing patients and operating.
In the weeks prior to this checkup, fear of the tests being abnormal and the cancer coming back began creeping into my life and my family’s. Sleepless nights filled with nightmares of worst-case scenarios…
