Dear Readers,
Following up my recent post about the Laws of Pathology, I wanted to share a quick story with you that vividly illustrates some of those points. Several years ago, I had a memorable end of the day STAT case that was literally a matter of life and death.
It was around 5 pm, but there was still a stack of cases to work through. Getting a STAT while you’re trying to finish up and go home is the last thing any pathologist wants, but sometimes the situation warrants it. This sample from was a middle-aged Golden Retriever named “Max” (not his real name) coming in through oncology. Max had a prior history of multicentric large cell lymphoma that was treated with standard chemotherapy. He had responded well and gone into remission. That is, until today.
His lymph nodes were enlarged and he had a mild fever. He was lethargic and wouldn’t eat. He walked gingerly, like it hurt to be alive.
The oncology team was understandably su…
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