Ode to Pete

Avery "Pete" Peterson passed away yesterday.  He and his wife were one of my first patients after I opened my clinic in Colorado. Over the years, he became my friend.  After I moved away, I'd visit his when I visited Colorado, and I'd call him every few months or so.  He apparently got pneumonia and went to the hospital, a place that was pretty foreign to him.  His condition improved.  Then he passed away.  Which is as it should have been.  It wouldn't have been right for Pete to die while suffering.  He "suffered" most of the time that I knew him.  Pete lived through the Spanish Flu of 1919 and got through 6 months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.  My grandson and I attended Pete's 100th Birthday two years ago.  Pete died at the age of 102 years and 4 months.

Pete was unique, as we all are.  To the end, he would walk with his walker as much as he could every day. Pete was always complaining about some physical or emotional ailment.  He was often anxious, he had reflux, he had a tremor.  I barely remember a time that I saw or spoke to him that he didn't talk about these maladies.  But, they were part of who Pete was.  Pete had been in human resources, like my good friend Ray.  I must have an affinity for people who work in human resources.  

Pete's wife died many years ago.  He had prostate cancer, and is the patient that I often tell the story of who was hospitalized with pneumonia at the age of 88.  That was when I realized that the treatment for his prostate cancer was killing him as well.  We stopped the treatment and actually put him on testosterone for a year.  He began making his own testosterone within that year and never needed it again.  His PSA got up to 17 and stabilized after a few years and we never checked it again.  

Not long after Pete was hospitalized, he realized that he couldn't live at home anymore.  He made the tortured decision to move into a continuing care retirement community.  He ultimately decided, with my help, to move into the assisted living section.  He didn't want to move again, and his physical limitations dictated that he might need some more help sooner rather than later.  That was over a decade ago.  Pete lived in his room in the assisted living facility all of those years since.  Other residents passed away, but Pete persevered.

Pete loved to tell people about his friend, Doctor Wasserman.  That's how I found out about his death, with one of my former physician assistants messaging me yesterday about his death.  I know that he was proud of me, but I was proud to be a friend of Pete's.  Rest in Peace, Avery "Pete" Peterson.