Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021 - 16

FEATURE
THoofbeats?
by Bruce A. Goodman, MD, FACP
T
he Dark Days. That's what I call the 12 days of hell
I went through all but certain my wife and best
friend of 33 years was not going to be with me
much longer. As an Internist for 25 years, as well as Board
Certified Hospice Medical Director, I had delivered bad news
hundreds of times. Nothing prepared me for what lay ahead.
Marla and I had a fairy tale romance. We actually met in kindergarten,
having lived only 2 blocks from each other growing
up. We were friends off and on through grade school, but at 16
we started dating and never looked back. Though we went to
separate colleges, we became engaged at 20 and married at 21.
After raising 2 children, both of whom were out on their own,
we were enjoying our empty nest situation. My practice was
busy, and Marla kept busy doing the billing. In June of 2014,
having suffered with Trigeminal Neuralgia for some time, she
underwent a microvascular decompression neurosurgery. The
pre-op MRI was unremarkable, and the surgery went without a
hitch, with good results.
It was in November of that year she started having trouble
navigating. We would joke about her propensity to get lost.
But when it progressed to the point where she was unable to
drive to the grocery store without the GPS, I was suddenly very
concerned. A neurologic exam was unremarkable; her mentation
and executive function completely intact. Not a dime
was missed in the billing. Yet, she was walking into the wrong
rooms of our home.
I quickly arranged for an MRI. It was perfectly normal 5
months prior, but something was nagging at me. I escorted her
there and waited for the images to process, meeting with the
radiologist for an immediate read.
hink of Horses, Pray for Zebras
14 BUCKS/MONTGOMERY PHYSICIAN summer 2021
Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021

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