As Dr. Lauren Thorington can attest, meaningful friendships can sprout from the most unlikely of circumstances.
When she diagnosed Findlay resident Jennifer Dillon with breast cancer in September of 2011, Dr. Thorington had no idea how many common threads they shared or how tightly their bond would be woven. But the shared experience of Jennifer’s illness and the similarities in their personal lives would draw them together as kindred spirits.
Dillon was among the patients Dr. Thorington diagnosed with cancer during her first week as Director of Mammography at Imaging Consultants & Integral Vein Institute within Blanchard Valley Hospital. A former Chicago resident, the radiologist had personally experienced the dread of her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis several years earlier.
“Watching [my mother] go through that, I feel like every time I diagnose a patient it could be me,” she says. “I try to have a more personal approach, because to me it’s a personal disease.”
She assured 42-year-old Jennifer, wife of David and mom to Tyler, 12, and Alex, 10, that breast cancer treatment had advanced, and that Jennifer would live to watch her children become adults. It was Dr. Thorington’s calming bedside manner and unwavering optimism that “kind of started to build our relationship,” she said.
Following a successful double mastectomy, Jennifer recovered quickly enough to resume her longtime running regimen within weeks. Last spring, she attended a silent auction to raise money for “Pelotonia,” an annual 100-mile bike trip held by the St. James Cancer Center at Ohio State University to fund cancer research. She was surprised to see Dr. Thorington, who was invited by a friend.
The doctor was just as surprised to see Jennifer. “I felt it was a sign I should do this bike ride,” she explains.
She decided if those she knew and cared about fighting cancer could beat it “I can
at least ride a bike. This is minor in comparison.”
After three months of rigorous training scheduled around her hectic work and family lives —“I quickly learned I had to buy padded shorts,” she laughs — Dr. Thorington completed the August event, which attracted over 6,000 cyclists, in nine hours. She says participating with Jennifer deepened their friendship. Never before had she become such good friends with a patient.
“I felt like I could relate to Jennifer. I just felt an instant connection with her,” the doctor said.
Her new-found friend agrees. “I feel like we have things in common. She’s very down-to-earth. She’s a very neat person. A friendship with your doctor is definitely a unique situation.”
Both are anticipating a point when their schedules will coincide and their families can come together. Dr. Thorington looks forward to introducing Jennifer to her husband, Schuyler, and her boys, Gabe Watrous, 8, and Brody Watrous, 3.
“I see a lifelong friendship with Jennifer,” she says. “It seems natural with her. She stopped calling me Dr. Thorington and started calling me Lauren the first day after seeing her outside the hospital.”
