Hello,
Some time back my wife passed away. Before that Dr. Toms was our physician for several years. He knew my wife’s history and mine well.
My wife had several issues and at the time she had stage 4 breast cancer. It had been diagnosed just 4 months earlier. She had had Waldenström several years before which weakened her liver significantly.
Anyway, the Oncologist in Nashville put her on Ibrance, and I am fairly sure, no, very sure that it took a toll on my wife’s liver. We had just been to the Oncologist in Nashville on Monday, and he had no clue as to how to manage her “Weeping legs”.
We saw Dr. Toms on Tuesday about the “Weeping Legs”. No one could have been kinder and more considerate than he was. He knew she was sick, but I suspect he was very shocked at her present condition. He didn’t really let on. Dr. Toms told us what we needed to do. He never said anything to me that afternoon, but I felt that he really knew that her time was short. More importantly the compassion, time and care he showed my wife that afternoon meant more to me than anything or any medication he could have administered.
That evening, I called him about 10:00 p.m. My wife was not herself. I suspect that the liver failure had caused excessive ammonia which had taken over. He told me that if she was not better in about 2 hours to take her to the E.R. I knew from his tone, assuring and calm, that the end was near.
At 2:00 Wednesday morning I called 911. Yeah, I waited 4 hours. I needed a little time to process what was about to happen. Anyway, she was taken to the local hospital and after a few, very few, evaluations they recommended that she be transferred to Nashville. She never spoke coherently after that evening. She passed away on Friday of that same week.
Dr. Toms is still my Dr. While I think he is an excellent Dr., more importantly to me, he has shown me innumerable things which cannot be taught in medical school. Even with me he has been kind, understanding and compassionate. Hey, it’s not that easy to be any of those things with me.
An excellent physician, I feel fortunate to be in the care of someone with all his talents and abilities.
John.
