Johns, Alan
Alan Johns
Alan Johns MD spent his childhood learning to handle butcher knives in his dad's small-town grocery store. After a little further training in college, medical school, and residency, he became a gynecologist and a surgeon. He has authored or coauthored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as chapters in surgical textbooks. He has lectured on surgical topics around the world and performed over 8,500 surgical procedures. He practices medicine in Fort Worth, Texas, where he lives with Jenny, his wife of forty-one years. The Lump is his first stab at non-medical writing.
The Lump recounts my choice to become a doctor, the experiences that molded my surgical career and the startling discovery in 1998 that led to my own mastectomy, chemotherapy, mammograms, and hot flashes. Not unusual for a woman, but very much so for a gynecologist.
My story is told with humor and honesty from my very unique perspective as a male, a gynecologist, and a breast cancer patient. As a male physician saddled with a distinctly female disease, my experience was as unique and humorous as it was challenging, forcing me to reexamine my profession from my patients’ perspective.