Harlingen, Texas, April 1, 2010: Our newspapers, televisions, radios and the Internet have continued to provide us with assorted non-stop negative and positive narrative on healthcare for months. It has been examined from various political vantage points; it has been given humanistic spin; it has been sliced and diced. There is little about healthcare or health insurance reform that has not been examined.
During all of this noise making, there is one lesson I have really learned. It is not the politician, the talking head, the newspaper pundit or even the gathering of disgruntled voters who truly determines what healthcare a person receives. It is the doctor, the nurse, the laboratory technician, the healthcare provider, friends and family who reach out and save each of us from those health calamities, which are mostly of our own making or neglect.
It has been two months now. What an awakening time it has been. One day I was working in the yard and I felt unusually tired. On my next visit to the doctor I mentioned the event in passing. The end result of that casual remark was open-heart surgery.
I had never given the heart much thought. After all it is just a large muscle in your body that pumps blood and oxygen to other parts of the body, day and night, 24 hours a day. But, that was all it is or was ----a pump.
I now understand the heart is so much more. It is God’s clock; ticking away the days, weeks, months and years of this life he has granted us. It is the vault where all of our meaningful treasures are stored. It is the control center for every function of our body, every electronic impulse to our brain, everything that is you or I.
That fateful morning I was a strong, independent and self-confident retired senior executive who had remained a valuable contract consultant for my state. I was an important, self-assured person who could always take care of himself and others around him.
Only hours later I was unconscious on an operating table with a stranger holding my heart in his hands. The surgeon and his team made those major decisions and repairs to my body that gave me the opportunity to continue on with my life.
Though the next day or so remain blurred in my memory, I do remember that an ICU nurse was by my side for 14 hours. Her supervisor then stood careful watch for several hours until I could be moved to a cardiac care room.
My first real memories are of my wife, my son, my sister and other family members at my bedside. All were projecting worry, attention and love in my direction. There was a family member at my side every minute from the time my eyes opened, until I was finally discharged. My son slept in a chair beside my bed for three nights, just to be sure all my needs were met. My wife sharply watched every doctor, nurse, and attendant, even the janitor, to assure everything was progressing, as it should.
As days passed, family and friends, cards, flowers and gifts comforted me. The hospital staff was cheerful and attentive. The hospital administrator stopped by to visit. My pastor was often present. Though all of the attention was welcomed, it did not erase or even reduce the pain my body endured following that extensive surgery. Even now, my chest aches to the touch, a constant reminder that my heart is still undergoing repair.
For the past month I have been one of several patients in cardiac rehab. There a team of special cardiac care nurses conduct tests, monitoring, lead exercises and cheerfully push a group of often reluctant patients through a variety of activities from lifting free weights, to stationary bicycles to step machines and treadmill marching that increases in speed with almost every session. While all of this is taking place, the nurses are monitoring the electronic devices that are attached to our bodies, checking the blood pressure and testing our blood glucose levels. As this activity unfolds, we usually have Mexican or country music playing loudly to keep our minds off the often-grueling exercise routine.
When our hours of testing and exercise are completed there is always a trip to the classroom and some heart healthy education. Everything about our condition and the function of our hearts is explained, as is the selection of correct foods and for most of us a change in eating habits. This importance of continuing daily exercise after rehab is stressed often, as is the spirituality message that is important to so many who have undergone this experience.
In this band of cardiac rehab patients are those with healthcare insurance, those with Medicare, Medicaid and one with no insurance at all. Everyone is receiving the same attention and the same quality care. Not a politician has been in sight during all these many days. It has been doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. They have been caring for everyone with professionalism and even affection. There has been no conversation about lower premiums, higher taxes or single payer government care. Everything has been just a matter of heart.
Semper Fidelis
Thomas D. Segel
http://thomasdsegel.com/
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