Its nice to help someone

In my job, we "help" alot of people, everyday. But its like a service, its really nothing special to us as techs/managers. Diagnose a bloodclot, or a lesion in a artery, the patient gets help, gets better and moves on. We do it all day, everyday, somedays more than others. And it doesn't really give you that "feel good moment" that often. The patient gets their test and gets better and they move on and don't think to much about what you did for them, and you don't think of that patient again.

But every once and a while you do something good for a individual and you know it, and they know it and in that time and the time after you remember it and it still makes you feel good that you actually helped improve someone's quality of life for a long time. And when its a younger person, and you know they appreciate it, well that makes it even better.

I had that happen to me today. A patient, let's call her Diane came to our lab and office late last year. She had aweful stomach pain all the time. She couldn't eat without throwing up after, having terrible abdominal pain and very bad bowel occurances. Diane is three years younger than me, so she is in her early 30's..way to young to have these problems. She went from doctor to doctor, ER to ER, wrong diagnosis to wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment to wrong treatment. No one could figure out what was wrong.

Then she get's sent to us, and to me. She came in very skinny....very skinny, since she hasn't been able to really eat for about 3 months already. Dramatic weight loss. She is tired. Weak. SKINNY. Her husband is with her and her two little kids. And they all look haunted, because no one knows what is going on with her and they can see that she is fading away, and eventually....well you get the point.

We do some tests. The main one is a ultrasound of the superior mesenteric artery. A vessel that brings blood to the intestines, and therby makes them work. So you can eat. If there is something wrong with this artery, you can't eat without bad pain, without throwing up, without diarrehea.

Can you see where I am going with this?

Well, I scan it and guess what?

Its fine. No problems at all...

Uh oh.

So I keep scanning and finish off our established protocol for the exam.

As part of it, thereare 4 other arteries that must be checked..the Aorta, the hepatic artery, the splenic artery and the celiac artery.

Look at it this way, the aorta is the main blood vessel, from this comes off the Celiac artery (or axis) and from that branch off the hepatic and splenic arteries.

Well the aorta is fine...better its perfect.

The celiac artery is perfect.

But there is funky flow in the splenic AND hepatic. But they both look fine.

So I took a few more minutes and checked out the celiac, since my training tells me that SOMETHING has to be wrong with this...and lo-and-behold..

I found this tiny, tiny spot, where the blood flow was going NUTZ! And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. I won't get into details...I already did already, but it was just NOT right, and there was no reason for it that I could see. So I took my findings to our vascular surgeon, told him, tried the best I could to explain what I saw and he took it from there.

Long story short, the artery was fine, but there was abnormal ligament crossing over the artery and pinching it off, restricting the blood flow and possibly causing her symptoms.

So they took her to the Operating room, did a endoscopy surgery and took care of that artery.

Fast forward to today, its been 5 months, she is putting on wieght, she is eating well. She is HAPPY.

And she thanks me for being nice to her and finding the problem and helping her.

She made me Rice Crispy Treats today...my favorite.

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