Yeah, I may not be able to have children (even with tens of thousands of dollars of money spent, several surgeries and a myriad of awful invasive procedures), but at least I�m healthy (minus some of the girl-parts needed for babies).

My cancer patients never cease to amaze me with their strength, humor, and vitality. Even when they�re dying.

I had a long-time patient pass away this week. Sherry was 29 years old, married for 8 years, with 2 gorgeous toddlers. She had a great job doing computer stuff, which is what she loved to do. And then she was struck not only with breast cancer, but with a really awful kind of breast cancer that metastasized (spread) to her brain.

This sweet, wonderful woman spent several years battling her cancer � some weeks were better, some weeks were worse. She endured clinical trials and experimental treatments and several regimens of chemotherapy ... but none of these things worked.

She knew last year that she was going to die. She stopped working (she had to � all of the drugs had done a number on her system and she couldn�t function well).

Last fall I helped her husband with a bunch of paperwork that would allow them to cash in her life insurance policy early. �Why do you want to do this?� I asked. �You�ll get less now than you will �� I let the end of the sentence trail off, unsaid.

�Because we want to take the kids to Disneyworld before Sherry dies. And the only way we can afford it is if we cash in this policy now. We want to have one last family vacation that the kids have a chance of remembering.�

They did take that vacation � and it sounds like it was a good one. A bittersweet one.

And then she got worse.

I hadn�t seen her in a while � I knew she was close to the end but I guess I was just hoping for a miracle.

I found out at work yesterday that she had finally died.

So yeah, my life may suck sometimes � what with the wanting to have my husband�s babies and all of the painful, awful, uncomfortable hoops we have to jump through.