Some of the bitter experiences I spoke of in my last installment include patients such as one teenage girl I remember. Tina came to me in the late stages of ovarian cancer. She was only seventeen. Because her cancer was so far advanced, it was untreatable. She died six months after it was discovered. Even though I know there was nothing I could do, I still felt like a failure as a doctor, losing Tina. There have been other patients I have lost, and a sense of failure stays with me concerning them as well. I think feeling guilty over the loss of a patient is part of being human, because I realize that a life was lost when one of my patients lose their battle. I hurt for the person that was lost, and for the family that was left behind. It is a doctor’s job to heal, and losing a patient is a defeat in my cause. I don’t try to shrug off the defeat, but I can’t let it keep me down, being able to move on is a must. I strongly believe that each person that comes into our lives does so with a purpose, a lesson to teach us, and that is how I feel about each and every person I treat. Each person that has crossed my path by way of my career has left a mark on my life, and I will never forget what each of them had to show me.