“What’s oncology?” Nancy Yansen asked.
Kevin gave his wife an irritated look of disbelief. “Cancer,” he said disdainfully. “Jesus, Nance, you know that.”
“Sorry,” Nancy said with equal irritation.
“How many oncology patients do you have?” Steve asked.
David closed his eyes and thought for a moment. “Let’s see,” he said. “I’ve got John Tarlow with leukemia. He’s in the hospital right now. I’ve got Mary Ann Schiller with ovarian cancer. I’ve got Jonathan Eakins with prostatic cancer. I’ve got Donald Anderson who they thought had pancreatic cancer but who ended up with a benign adenoma.”
“I recognize that name,” Trent said. “That patient had a Whipple procedure.”
“Thanks for telling us,” Gayle said sarcastically.
“That’s only four patients,” Steve said.
“There’s more,” David said. “I’ve also got Sandra Hascher with melanoma and Marjorie Kleber with breast cancer.”
“I’m impressed you’ve committed them all to memory,” Claire Young said.
“It’s easy,” David said. “I remember them because I’ve befriended them all. I see them on a regular basis because they have a lot of medical problems, which is hardly surprising considering the amount of treatment they’ve undergone.”
“Well, what’s the problem?” Claire asked.
“The problem is that now that I’ve befriended them and accepted responsibility for their care, I’m worried they’ll die of their illness and I’ll feel responsible.”
“I know exactly what he means,” Steve said. “I don’t understand how anybody can go into oncology. God bless them. Half the reason I went into OB was because it’s generally a happy specialty.”
“Ditto for ophthalmology,” Kevin said.
“I disagree,” Angela said. “I can understand very well why people go into oncology. It has to be rewarding because people with potentially terminal illnesses have great needs. With a lot of other specialties you never truly know if you have helped your patients or not. There’s never a question with oncology.”
“I know Marjorie Kleber quite well,” Gayle Yarborough said. “Both TJ and my middle, Chandler, had her as their teacher. She’s a marvelous woman. She had this creative way to get the kids interested in spelling with tiny plastic airplanes moving across a wall chart.”
“I enjoy seeing her every time she conies in for an appointment,” David admitted.
“How’s your job?” Nancy Yansen asked Angela.
“Couldn’t be better,” Angela said. “Dr. Wadley, the chief of the department, has become a true mentor. The equipment is state-of-the-art. We’re busy but not buried. We’re doing between five hundred and a thousand biopsies a month, which is respectable. We see interesting pathology because Bartlet Hospital is acting as a tertiary care center. We even have a viral lab which I didn’t expect. So all in all it’s quite challenging.”
“Have you had any run-ins with Charles Kelley yet?” Kevin asked David.
“Not at all,” David said with surprise. “We’ve gotten along fine. In fact just this week I met with Kelley and the CMV quality management director from Burlington. They were both complimentary about the responses patients had given on forms asking them to evaluate care and satisfaction.”
“Ha!” Kevin laughed scornfully. “Quality management is a piece of cake. Wait until you have your utilization review. It usually takes two or three months. Let me know what you think of Charles Kelley then.”
“I’m not concerned,” David said. “I’m practicing good, careful medicine. I don’t give a hoot about the bonus program concerning hospitalization and I’m certainly not in the running for one of the grand prize trips to the Bahamas.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Kevin said. “I think it’s a good program. Why not think twice before hospitalizing someone? Patients around here follow your orders. People are better off home than in the hospital. If the hospital wants to send Nance and me to the Bahamas, I’m not going to complain.”
“It’s a bit different for ophthalmology than for internal medicine,” David said.
“Enough of this medical talk,” Gayle Yarborough said. “I was just thinking we should have brought the movie The Big Chill. It’s a great movie to watch with a group like this.”
“Now that would stimulate some discussion,” Nancy Yansen said. “And it would be a lot more stimulating than this medical drivel.”
“I don’t need the movie to think about whether I would be willing to let my husband make love to one of my friends so she could have a baby,” Claire Young said. “No way, period!”