I was dragging in the office today. All the children are back in school. It's the difficult chronic medical problems that seem to have no solution that confront me, and my energy is lacking. Taking a brief nap at lunch helps a little.
I pick up the first chart after lunch... a middle aged Asian woman, Mrs. Q. As I walk in, she looks puffy, and runny, but there is an intensity and a liveliness in her eyes too. "Thank you for saving my husband's life," -- it jumps out as if she had been holding it in for a long time. I did not expect that. Yes, I did work her husband in at the end of a Friday when the couple drove 3 hours back to Grand Rapids from the Upper Peninsula, him with chest pain, and instead of going to an emergency room like most people, they wanted to see me. His EKG showed an arrhythmia and possible ischemia(critical lack of oxygen that carries the threat of heart attack), but not a heart attack. I was able to get my good friend and cardiologist, Dr. M, to see him yet that afternoon. Within a couple of days in the hospital the mystery had been solved, a pacemaker inserted, heart attack averted, life normalized. "I was very pleased to help your husband, and I am glad he is better". I am thankful that there are still people for whom the relationship with their doctor is more important than an MRI. But mostly, I am thankful that my dry well is filled today by the celebration of a success and for life restored. It becomes energy that I can draw on for the rest of the day.
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