Happy New Year

Happy New Year to our family & friends! 

This past year brought us many blessings & we have so much to be thankful for heading into the new year - our little man, our family, good friends, our health, good jobs & so much more. Sometimes it takes a certain person or a specific situation that act as gentle reminders throughout the year to help you remember how truly blessed you really are. Ironically, as 2013 was coming to an end, this happened to me on New Year's Eve.

Past New Year's Eve's for us have often been spent at home, curled up in bed fast asleep when midnight rolls around & honestly - I wouldn't want it any other way. We can barely stay up past 10pm anymore, we are not big partiers/drinkers like we were in our 20's & early 30's & besides, we live in a big city & I would rather not be driving amongst all the drunk people out there on the interstates after midnight has come & gone.

This year however I spent NYE a bit differently & experienced one of those "gentle reminders" that 1) again how short life can be & 2) how very blessed I am for my health, the health of my husband, son & family.

Most of you who know me know that I work at the largest heart hospital here in Kansas City in their Cardiovascular Lab. It is a place where a Cardiologist & a team of 3 nurses/techs perform heart cardiac catheterizations on patients as well as do angioplasty, stent placement in the heart & leg arteries, biopsies on our heart transplant patients, surgically implant pacemaker & defibrillator's & work with the CVOR to do TAVR & AAA repair procedures. Along with all these duties we are expected to be on call nights & weekends for that unsuspected patient(s) who is having a heart attack (myocaridal infarction) & needs an emergent heart cath procedure to open up a blocked artery around the heart - which is what causes a heart attack.

Let me first say that I LOVE my job! I must love it as I have been doing the same job for over 18 years. (Wow does that make me feel old?!) However, as mentally challenging as some of the days may be or as tough as some of our patients & situations can be, one can find yourself starting to become "cold" to those days or situations or even the patients. Unfortunately, it happens to a lot of people in healthcare & a lot of us move on to other jobs in the hospital when you start "not caring" anymore. But it seems that every single time I start to feel like that I get that one patient who stands out & reminds me why I love this job in the first place & why I keep returning day in & day out.

This year I was on call for New Year's Eve/Day & we had gotten called in around 9:30pm on NYE. I was just starting to get ready for bed when the pager went off. It was freezing cold outside & I wasn't happy at the thought of getting in my car & having to drive the 38 mile one-way trip to the hospital. How selfish of me, right? But I made it there safely & we were able to open up the patients' blocked heart artery & another life was saved.

Just as we were leaving the East hospital our pager went off again. More mumbling & grumbling. This time it was for the South hospital so the cath lab team hurried to the other facility where our patient was clearly in distress & not doing well. There was a lot of chaos, rushing around, the Dr was being a royal PIA & tensions were high. I remember looking up at the clock at 11:58pm & thinking "what a heck of a way to bring in the New Year"!? 

We were able to get him stable, open up his blockage, place a stent & transferred him to the ICU in stable condition. I made my way home around 1am & while driving I started thinking about the case. About how I was getting too old for these middle of the night call-ins. How mad I was that Dr. C was such an ass towards us. How I was feeling unappreciated for what we do. Then my focus shifted to what a great thing we did tonight for 2 patients. Those 2 men were someones son, someones dad, someones brother & uncle. We had a hand in saving their life, spending another year with their families & for that I began to feel proud. 

Fast forward to the following Monday & imagine my surprise when I had this email in my inbox at work from our 2nd patient on New Year's Eve:

“I wanted to contact EVERYONE at Saint Luke's South ER, the Cath Lab Team, ICU group..and probably another 50 people I am not even aware of...and of course Dr. C & his team for saving my life on New Year's Eve. I am in disbelief that so many strangers worked so desperately hard to keep me alive. Talk about dancing with stars. I had dozens of stars that night doing a coordinated dance just for me. 

On a night when so many other people were out celebrating a simple change to a new year, I found myself experiencing the best New Year's Eve show in town put on by a group of professionals that gave up their night to be there to give me my life. I am forever grateful. Could you please help me in getting this message to all the people involved? 

Thank you!”

This letter brought tears to my eyes.

I am one of those "stars" this patient talks about. I had a hand in saving his life. He is forever grateful because of us. 

Thank you Sir for the "gentle reminder". For reminding me that what I do is important. No matter how simple or complex a procedure may be, what we do is important. 

I can't think of a better way to end & begin the year :)

Here's wishing all our family & friends health & many blessings in the New Year!