So, last week I had to admit a patient to the hospital for some dangerously low blood levels. The patient had been having some associated symptoms due to the abnormal labs for quite awhile. It was sort of an intimidating process: how do you Admit someone? Do they really need to be admitted? Who do I talk to about it? Anyhoo, the physicians there were able to find the source of the abnormal labs and he was later discharged with a good plan to treat/prevent problems.
Now fast forward to today for the patient follow up visit. The patient looks like an entirely different person, and they say to me, "The doctors said you saved my life by admitting me! I could have had x,y,and z complication. I didn't even know what was going on!"
Let me tell you, that is a rewarding experience! In addition, it was a great learning case. So often in medicine you feel like you don't solve anything, at least not promptly, but this was one for the books :)
It makes me briefly think about how good it makes the Lord feels when we come back to him and say, "Wow, thank you Lord. You saved my life! I didn't even know how bad I needed it!" May we be forever grateful!
Love, Kristie
