Happy Holidays! I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating this time of year or simply being with your loved ones. Anywhere you go, it’s nice to see the décor and all the tiny details stores, homeowners, schools, and children are putting into making things sparkle just a little more.
Details…people appreciate and tend to put forth lots of thought into little details. Whether it is in the placement of the ornaments or the festive table settings you choose or perhaps it’s in the floral arrangements or the way you say good morning to a loved one. Whatever it is, people tend to focus on details in parts of their lives that matter most to them. As this year wraps up, I look back and feel blessed for little details like the small blood test that comes negative or the balloon arch that my partner ordered for the Step for Hope run that really made the 5k feel official or the week my husband took off around the holidays just to be together. I also remember all the things that I have learned over the course of the year and the biggest lesson I havelearned is to look into the details of your health. I have experienced my fair share of mix-ups while being immersed in the public healthcare system…a few that I caught that have made either a small difference or in some cases, a monumental one. Let’s start with when I first realized my headaches were not your ordinary headache and went to get it checked. My primary care was out of the office so I saw one of his associates. We spent maybe 7 minutes chatting and she told me it was just stress of my upcoming wedding and sent me away with a prescription for anti-anxiety medication. I wasn’t content with that and went back the next week to see my doctor which led to further testing and ultimately found the brain aneurysm. What if I had just taken that doctor’s word? Or how about the time where the triage nurse called me with the results on a Friday stating the MRA showed a possible brain aneurysm but since the referral lady was gone for the weekend, I would have to wait until Monday to get an order for the recommended follow up testing. She told me not to worry because it’s probably not an aneurysm. My family ended up taking me to the ER for the follow up testing immediately and it definitely was a brain aneurysm. Those are some bigger mix-ups but there were smaller ones too. A couple weeks before the surgery was scheduled to have my aneurysm coiled the doctor explained to me that I would need to get some blood work done about 4 days before surgery and the day before. This information was needed in order for the surgery to take place as scheduled. They told me that 3 tests would be done at the 4 day mark and then a different one the day before. So when I went in the day before, they took 3 tests, same color vials from the 4 day mark. I got the blood work done, left and then realized that they may not have drawn the blood for the correct test. So I go back to the nurses’ station, tell them about this and they look at me like I was crazy…as you may also be thinking as you read this. In the end, they apologized, asked me if they could stick me once more because indeed it was wrong. Lastly, I did a lot of research in choosing a doctor I felt most comfortable with. On surgery day, they had me sign all those “in case something goes wrong—they are not responsible” papers and noticed that next to my doctor’s name as who was performing the surgery; his new partner was on there as well. This meant that he could do the surgery instead. Now, I am sure the partner is wonderful but that’s not what was decided and had I not seen that, all my research and level of comfort would have been thrown out the window in that operating room. I didn’t sign until that was fixed. So I share these stories not because I want to be right and I’m not sure how big of a deal each incident would have played out to be but I share this in hopes that you will begin to attend to the details of your healthcare as you would for your tree or in choosing the best holiday outfit. Remember that you and your health are so important and its better that you take care of it when it isn’t a big issue so that it doesn’t become one. While I have great respect and appreciation for all those in the medical field, I also know that like me they are human and mistakes can happen. Double check and pay attention to those details so that less can happen. I hope that you have a very Happy New Year and look forward to sharing more of my journey with you in 2012. I am going to leave you with some great articles and accomplishments related to brain aneurysms. Thank you for all your support this year and as always, I wish you much love and good health in this upcoming year. Here’s a look back at this year…
*Read about our support group at CDH…thank you to all those that attend and the hospital for being so supportive in raising awareness about brain aneurysms, funding vital research and supporting brain aneurysm patients and loved ones!
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111012/news/710129951/
*See my journey through the great work of the talented Sarah Jindra and Marco Santana:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111012/news/710129957/photos/AR/
http://www.inspiremechicago.com/search?q=roopa+desai&x=0&y=0
*Read about the innovative and in-depth brain aneurysm research of Dr. Deveshwar:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111012/news/710129955/
*Star Tamala Jones opens up about her brain aneurysm and is speaking out to raise awareness:
http://www.etonline.com/news/116566_Castle_star_Tamala_Jones_opens_up_about_brain_aneurysm/
*Step for Hope raised over $22,000 and made the front cover of the Brain Aneurysm
Foundation’s fall newsletter! Read all about all the wonderful things the Brain Aneurysm Foundation is doing and
supporting: http://www.bafound.org/sites/default/files/2011%20Fall%20Newsletter.pdf
