Cassandra’s Curse

The poem Cassandra's Curse , accompanied by a brief commentary, explores the psychological and existential terrain of routine medical surveillance through the lens of a patient who is also a physician and has stage IV leiomyosarcoma. Using the medium of poetry, the author hopes to offer clinicians, as well as a broader audience, deeper insight into the dread patients with life-limiting illness repeatedly face, even in relation to apparently mundane procedures, such as computed axial tomography scans.