"Dad, you're a doctor."
I say in a feeble voice, a lump forming in my throat. I try so hard to keep the tears at bay.
"As a doctor, you know that miracles happen all the time." I pause to tame the tears. "Maybe a miracle will happen this time. Maybe you should get treatment. You are the strongest man I know. You can kill cancer. Don't let cancer kill you."
"Darling," he says softly. "I'm a doctor. And I know that optimism can't cure cancer. The placebo effect is pure bullshit. It happens once in a million cases and it's only used by nice doctors to give dying patients false hope. Now that I'm a patient who's a doctor, I prefer doctors telling me the truth. And they told me that I'm dying. So I believe them."
"Then get other doctors."
"They'll tell me the same thing."
"Then get optim
