Comparative Disappointments

Today, I went to Costco and treated myself to a Very Berry Sundae. Normally this is frozen yogurt topped with marion berries. Today it was strawberries. Not that there is anything wrong with strawberries, but I like it better with marion berries. Since strawberries are cheaper, I guess Costco is trying to save a little money.

While I was sullenly eating my sundae at a picnic table under an umbrella inside the store, I couldn't help but overhear another customer having a cell phone conversation with her mother. She was excited that she has upgraded her Costco card. Instead of the usual $50 membership fee, she had paid $100. In exchange, she would get 20% of the value of her purchases back at the end of the year. She was figuring that she would save about $2,000 a year.

I was disappointed over my berries. That's nothing compared to the disappointment she's going to feel when she only gets a check back for 2% of her purchases. She didn't read the sign correctly.

I have a patient who also is disappointed. She's a young woman who every year has gotten regular pap smears. The last one was in July of this year and like all of the others, came back negative. The tests were all wrong and she actually had cervical cancer which has spread to the uterus. We don't know yet if it has spread any further.

I don't know if the problem was in the lab where the tests are read or if her doctor didn't take adequate specimens, but for that many tests to come back with false negatives is unusual. Cervical cancer develops slowly over years. A yearly pap smear will normally detect the disease before it turns cancerous. With early treatment, the disease is almost 100% curable. What a great lawsuit if her cancer has spread.

When you are disappointed by something, it's not hard to find other people who are worse off. Compared to cancer, the wrong kind of berries on my sundae doesn't seem like such a bad thing.