Credit Where Credit Is Due

In telling my story so far, I’ve occasionally poked fun at some of the absurdities I experienced in the course of my treatment. Sarcasm comes pretty naturally to me, and the modern American healthcare system is nothing if not absurd. Frankly, at times it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

All that said, in truth I don't believe I could have asked for, or received, better care from either Group Health or Virginia Mason. Every single person I came in contact with, from the receptionist at the admissions desk at GH to the patient care tech who escorted me out the door at VM, did an amazing job working on my behalf. And while I found everyone I interacted with to be pretty great, there are a few folks, in particular, I’d like to single out (presented in more or less chronological order):

The Physician’s Assistant at GH urgent care whose name, regrettably, I cannot remember -- At one level, this guy had a pretty easy job. Arrange for a CT scan, have the radiologist find cancer, and then ship me off to the hospital for surgery. But based on the time I spent in urgent care, I really do believe the PA had a battle on his hands convincing VM to admit me. I do believe they really wanted to send my home with a bucket of GoLytely and wait until I got a colonoscopy as an outpatient. But given how my colonoscopy prep turned out, that would've been a disaster. So props to the Physician's Assistant who went to bat for me and convinced VM to take me in straightaway.  

Every single nurse and patient care tech on the 10th floor of VM's Jones Pavilion who provided me with care -- I'd name names if I could remember them all, but there are too many for my meager brain to recall and I don't want to risk leaving anybody out. What an amazing group of people. These folks answered my questions, listened to my complaints, advocated for me with the doctors when they thought something wasn't going the way it should, and tolerated the fact that I would disappear for hours on end. (It must be a little disconcerting to find a patient's room empty with a note on the whiteboard that says, "Call my cellphone if you need me.") The overnight nurses and techs did their best to minimize disturbances on the overnight shifts, and everyone seemed to work hard to create the best environment they could for a person to heat. A terrific group, one and all. 

Dr. Faiza Zafar, Hospitalist -- Admittedly, Dr. Zafar drove me a little crazy while I was sitting in the hospital, as she was by far the most conservative of my caregivers. She was the one telling me not to "overdo" the walking, and the one who took away my soft foods menu. But in retrospect I've come to appreciate that there was at least one conservative voice providing me care and, perhaps more important, that she was willing to stick to her guns and advocate for what she thought was right when lots of people, myself included, were pushing in another direction. I never once doubted that Dr. Zafar had my long term best interests at heart. 

Dr. Amy Harper, Surgeon -- The stereotype of a surgeon you always hear is the doctor who sweeps into the room, examines whatever broken part they're going to be working on, and then sweeps out again without ever interacting with the patient as a patient or as a person. Dr. Harper couldn't be further from this "ideal" if she was practicing on Pluto. Every interaction I had with her made me feel like the most important thing to her was how I was doing overall, not what was going on in my ascending colon. Prior to surgery she went out of her way to try to connect with my family members to make sure they knew what was going on and had their questions answered, and following surgery she personally completed the crazy paperwork my employer needed to let me get back to work. Based on my recovery, I have to believe Dr. Harper is a fine surgeon; based on my experience, I know for a fact that she's a phenomenal doctor.

All my anesthesiologists, again, none of whose name I can remember -- It sucks to be in pain, and these folks worked very hard to minimize the degree and duration of any pain I was in. If at any point my pain exceeded tolerable limits, they were there to investigate potential causes and come up with a solution. It's hard to walk the halls when it hurts too much to stand. By keeping the pain at bay, these men and women enabled me to get better and get out. 

I wouldn't wish a hemicolectomy on my worst enemy, but if you had to go through one, you couldn't do better than to go through it under the care of the people who took care of me.

My eternal gratitude to each and every one of you.