Patient Spotlight: Diane Charvat

Diane came in last week with an incredible story. She had been experiencing stomach pain and digestive issues for quite some time. Diane is a resilient, capable, rational human being, and she truly believed she could manage the symptoms conservatively. But after several months with no improvement, she finally went in for a proper diagnosis. Imaging revealed an enormous—though benign—mass of scar tissue that required surgical removal.

At Cedars, after four hours of surgery, the gynecological surgeon could not fully unwind the scarring. Another four hours with the thoracic surgery team allowed them to remove most of the scar tissue, but the procedure was so extensive and challenging that it became a life-saving event. Weeks later, she endured yet another seven-hour surgery, followed by a long hospital stay. Even with pain medication, she told me she was experiencing a kind of pain that words couldn’t contain.

I asked her how she got through all of it—what her strategy was for surviving that level of pain. Her answer: gratitude.

Gratitude for being alive. And music.
During the moments when the pain felt unmanageable, she would play opera as loudly as she could and cry—cry until she had completely surrendered to the experience.

Diane is recovering now. She walks every day and receives regular bodywork to restore her movement and her fitness. And she is deeply grateful to be celebrating Thanksgiving with her family this year.

Author, philosopher, and neuroscientist Sam Harris puts it simply: “You need something to be grateful for? Start with you’re not dead.”

We are still in the game. Through good times, bad times, and the ordinary in-between, we’re still here—and that alone is worth remembering.

Thank you, Diane, for your story and your inspiration.