I have been a patient of Dr. Braver for 18 years, and my wife was a patient for 15 of these 18 years, the last decade of which has been in the MDVIP practice. My wife was a survior of pancreatic cancer and the Wipple Surgery procedure for 8 years, however, due to the intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatments which seemed to give her remission, came the terrible "chemo brain" of early onset dementia, with the failure or loss of mental powers. I would always accompany my wife for appointments (to which my wife always made me late, requiring my speed driving) to Dr Braver's office, and more and more, I'd have to answer, for my wife, as she looked to me, all of the questions normally required in the doctor/patient interchange. Dr Braver had compassion for my real sense of frustration, and tried to relieve it by giving me a break to go into the outer office. As the dementia progressed and while I was the full time caretaker of my wife, Dr Braver offered to keep my wife as a patient, but wave her MDVIP enrollment fees, understanding the high medical costs I was absorbing, including very expensive prescriptions, especially to help alleviate the issues of not having a properly working pancreas to secrete digestive enzymes. So, you see, Dr Braver's support made me feel like family, receiving compassion, caring, and psychological support for my sadness and for the very tough last 2 years, during the Covid pandemic, that my wife declined with Alzheimer's leading to her death. The day of my wife's passing, almost 3 years ago, when I returned home, I found the most beautiful, comforting, sympathetic personal voice mail message on my home phone from Dr Braver that I treasure, have never deleted, and listen to from time to time, as I go through the grieving process - that is a moment that makes a difference.
Patient of Robin A. Braver, MD
