Doctor's Orders

How can anyone possibly love me looking like this?“ she asked me. She lay on her back, cradling the atrophic remains of her breasts. ”I'm ugly. Why would my husband want to love me?”

“I think his love for you has to do with more than just your appearance. It probably has much more to do with all of the feelings and experiences you have shared.”

“That's easy for you to say. You're still young and beautiful,” she replied. “You just don't understand. He doesn't look at me the same way. He doesn't want me anymore. He doesn't want to make love to me. He's here only to take care of me. What do I have to give back to him? Once he was so proud of me, but now I'm a disgrace.”

I couldn't argue. How could I, a third-year medical student, even begin to try and convince this woman, who was long past 70, that I had a better perspective on her marriage than she …