ZS (44 years old, 4 cm Left orbitosphenoid meningioma), Southfield, MI

“תְזַכֵּנִי לְהַבִּיט עַל כֹּל סוֹבֵל, הַבָּא לִשְׁאֹל בַּעֲצָתִי, כְּעַל אָדָם”

“In the sufferer who has come to seek my counsel, let me see only the human being.”
—Medieval Scholar Maimonides’ “Physician’s Prayer” (Hebrew taken from the website of the National Library of Israel)

Dear Dr. Lee,

When I came to seek your care for my meningioma, I was naturally fearful. Not only did I fret over questions of survival and recovery, over the implications of my illness for my loved ones and myself, but I also wondered whether I’d be able to find a doctor who could fully attend to the unique complexity of my case. Years after the operation, I write this letter with a heart profoundly expanded with gratitude. I have you to thank for my intact vision, cognitive functions, and personality—special quirks and all—after being told by so many others that they would be compromised or irrevocably lost. In addition to caring for me with your superb knowledge, method, and craftsmanship, you gave me exceptional personal attention, reaching out to my husband and children in the hospital, checking up on me post-surgery during your off-hours, speaking to me with unending patience and compassion—and the list goes on.

Thank you for brilliantly doing what nobody else could medically do, and thank you for continuing to treat me with so much humanity during my annual (cross-continental!) checkups. You see me not as a collection of symptoms, but as a human being, not as a nondescript patient, but as an individual. I am tremendously grateful to have found you. Wishing you and your family health, love, and success, that whatever you wish may find fulfillment.

With much love,

Z.S.

Southfield, Michigan

07/07/2017