Good morning!
I would love to share a story with you this morning. This is the tale of a celebrity who passed away on July 4th, 1995, yet earlier last month, 28 years later, saved my patient’s life.
Apart from the air being a touch more cool and damp than usual, it was a typical Wednesday morning in the Chest Pain Unit. The ticking of the second hand was audible across the nurses’ station. I looked up to grade myself on this morning’s efforts to get out of the house. 6:58 a.m. Perfect, not quite starting time.
The first case I was to see this morning was a non-emergent patient admitted overnight with atypical angina (chest discomfort). Starbucks in hand, I perused Epic (her electronic medical record). Good – nothing alarming. Setting the cup down and picking up my phthalo blue stethoscope, I head into room 11 (actual room # changed for HIPAA) to see our patient “Nancy”.
“Nancy! Good morning. My name is David Sabgir (unlike “Nancy”, I’m not protected by HIPAA) and I’m a cardiologist here. Please tell me your story – I’d love to hear it.”
“So, Doc my regular exercise is with Bob.” I assume she is referring to streaming The Biggest Loser and their popular trainer. Well, you know what happens when we assume.
“I was halfway through Bob and I’ll be darned if my right arm didn’t start aching. Then, it started going into my left arm!”
“Excuse me. Bob?”
“Yeah, ya know, Bob Ross (also not HIPAA protected in this scenario). I paint every day with Bob. Wet on wet. Been doin’ it for as long as I can remember. Years!” she proudly announces with a smile that lit up the room.
“But last night, halfway through, my arms started hurtin’. I had heard on the TV that women can have different heart symptoms than men. So, I called 9-1-1, chewed 4 baby aspirin (awesome), and changed the cats’ litter. I figured this was no happy accident”
She pauses again, and tilts her head to the right, awaiting my approval.
“Great move,” I confirm. “With your cardiac enzymes (Troponin, CK-MB) being normal overnight, we are safe to proceed with a stress test this am.”
“Will the stress test be done with oil-based paints?”
“No ma’am. It’ll be done with a treadmill”
“I can’t do the treadmill because of my knees. Got Ol’ Arthur. I need the medicine one.”
“That’s okay, not your fault. But, nonetheless, it’s unfortunate because we collect a lot of beneficial information on the treadmill and of course, you wouldn’t have to deal with the medicine’s possible side effects.”
Long story short, the woman had a positive (abnormal) stress test, and ended up proceeding to the Cath Lab (where we take a long skinny catheter through the wrist to inject contrast into the coronary arteries). She was found to have 95% blockages in both her LAD (left anterior descending) and circumflex arteries and received two drug-eluting stents.
Nancy is enrolled in our cardiac rehab program and doing extremely well – painting to her heart’s content (pun not intended but left in).
That night, after I had tucked the dogs into bed, I stood in our front yard. I stood on wonderful green grass gazing into the deep azul sky searching for and finding one or two happy titanium white clouds.
I thanked Bob Ross, saver of lives, and wiped away a tear before heading inside. I felt complete.
Then, I laid in bed for over 2 hours trying to figure out how in the world Will Ferrell has never portrayed Bob Ross in a skit or movie.
I guess that’s what makes life so exciting, always full of mysteries.
david
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.