Hero In Houston …

Thirteen years ago, my WW (Wonderful Wife) and I were sitting at a table in the dining hall at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.  We were agonizing as we awaited more results of biopsies of a tumor – already diagnosed in Atlanta as malignant – in my neck.  We had met Dr. Chris Holsinger a day earlier.  I remember wondering if he had started shaving yet.

My WW and I obviously looked distressed as we picked at our salads.  Into the dining hall walked a group of doctors including Dr. Holsinger.  He caught our worried looks, left his group and pulled up a chair at our table.

“You look worried,” he said.  “Let me assure you of something.  There is nothing we will encounter that we won’t have a plan for.  Nothing.”  He stayed with us for quite a while, encouraging us to eat but understanding why we couldn’t.  We learned about his family and he learned about ours.  Then he bopped up and off he went to save lives.

We did not get good news the next day but somehow felt better about facing our challenge with Dr. Holsinger in charge.  As we approached surgery, we met several times with him.  A couple of things stood out: he was always upbeat, cheerful and optimistic, and he always had a hug for my WW.  Always.

During one of our conversations, I told him I was planning to write a book some day. “If you get me through this tumor thing, you might get a mention in my book,” I told him with a smile.  He was amused and often asked me in subsequent visits if I had started my book.  “Well, I’m still kickin’ which means you’re still doing a pretty good job … so far.  You keep this up and you might move up from a mention to your own sentence, maybe even a paragraph.”

I appreciated Dr. Holsinger so much I decided to write a letter of thanks to him a few months after the surgery. Then I changed my mind and decided to write a letter to his wife.  I told her how much my WW and I appreciated her husband, not just his surgical and medical skills but also – mostly – his caring, sincere manner. I told her she was fortunate to have him as a husband.  Dr. Holsinger later thanked me for sending the letter and, typically, said he put it on a coffee table in their house in plain view for several days so his wife would not forget the part about how fortunate she is to have him.  So it was with this talented but obviously down-to-earth surgeon.

Follow-up visits to Houston became follow-up visits to Palo Alto, California after Dr. Holsinger accepted an offer to become Professor and Chief of Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center.  Not surprising at all to us.  In not-so-medical terms, he knows his stuff.  Our choice was either to stay with M.D. Anderson in Houston or go with Dr. Holsinger to California for on-going scans.  Easy decision.  After all, he had started shaving by then.

And, last year – after nine years of trips to Houston and three more years of trips to Palo Alto – Dr. Holsinger told us, in so many words, that since I’m still kickin’ after 12 years, there’s no reason for us to keep meeting like this.  We were happy to be released but obviously sad to say farewell.  His last act with us was a hug for my WW.

And, that possible mention in my book?  Dr. Holsinger had gone from a mention to a sentence to a paragraph to his own chapter.  A blog is the least I can do for a hero.