Kansas City, Kan-Key points from today’s guests:

Dr. Barrett Rollins, author, In Sickness; professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School

• Dr. Jane Weeks, Dr. Rollins’ wife, was a brilliant cancer researcher and skilled oncologist.
• About 20 years into their 30-year marriage, she developed breast cancer and kept it a secret from everyone – including her husband.
• Dr. Weeks also did not seek medical care.
• Dr. Rollins found out about the cancer one day when she collapsed in the bathroom and yelled for him to help.
• He wrote the book, In Sickness, to help better understand the entire situation.
• The thing he says he regrets most is how he couldn't figure out a way to convince his wife to get the medical care that she needed.

Dr. Roy Jensen, vice chancellor and director, The University of Kansas Cancer Center

• One of the dynamic tensions in the book is the fact that Dr. Weeks’ expertise, her training, and really everything about being a physician was the exact opposite of what her personal constitution told her to do when facing this dilemma.
• One of the fascinating things about this story is that it's such an unusual circumstance where someone who you would think would have every tool at her disposal to deal with this diagnosis in a way when she literally spent years training for -- would decide to essentially do the exact opposite.
• A person's preferences and what they believe is important for the quality of their life should be considered.
• Dr. Weeks was somebody who wanted to always be in control. One of the things that she was concerned about was that there is this incredible loss of control.
• She really wanted no part of that scenario. She wanted to maintain as much control for as long as she possibly could.

Monday, May 15 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update.

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