THE TRUTH IS that no one knows everything, but that’s not really the problem. The problem is that, for some things, no one knows anything, nothing is being done to change that, and sometimes medicine can be frankly wrong.
I still believe in the power of science and medicine. And I still believe in the importance of hard work and kindness. And I am still hopeful. And I still pray. But my adventures as both a doctor and a patient have taught me volumes about the often unfair disconnect between the best that science can offer and our fragile longevity between thoughts and prayers and health and well-being.
This is a story about how I found out that Santa’s proxies in medicine didn’t exist, they weren’t working on my gift, and they wouldn’t be delivering me a cure. It’s also a story about how I came to understand that hope cannot be a passive concept. It’s a choice and a force; hoping for something takes more than casting out a wish to the universe and waiting for it to occur. Hope should inspire action. And when it does inspire action in medicine and science, that hope can become a reality, beyond your wildest dreams.
In essence, this is a story about dying, from which I hope you can learn about living.
Excerpted from Chasing My Cure by David Fajgenbaum—Copyright © 2019 David Fajgenbaum.