Dr. Herson walked back to where I was sitting and opened his textbook to a page of black and used-to-be-white graphs. He angled his straight edge so that it would intersect my age with my treadmill results.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153See, this shows that you are in good shape for your age, even if not for you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve exercised all my life, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been fallow the last few months. And my diet – it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the worst it has ever been.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But your chest pains are not due to any blockage. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this stress test showed, and you were able to tolerate level four, which is good for your age.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The treadmill is programed to respond to data input. It increases in speed and in elevation depending on heart rate. As I stepped along, Dr. Herson gabbed. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ask him a question and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d drift into long, convoluted answers, as if I had an inkling of what he was talking about. The faster the treadmill spun, the longer the answers and the less sense they made. <\/p>\n
While he scribbled pictures of my arteries with little mounds of plaque, I concentrated on not letting go of the handrails and appearing to have an easy walk-in-the-park. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d dreaded this test, not only for what it might show inside my arteries, but for what it would reveal to the casual observer. A near bedridden slug.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know, that textbook looks like something I used in college.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ah yes. It has sentimental value.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sentimental value? But what about new information? I mean, think of what you learned in medical school that is worthless today?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These values don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change. This book was published in 1973 and it would take a hundred thousand years of human evolution to change these values.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny how this purported stress test really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t show stress, which is what I had hoped to be the cause of my chest pains. When I first sat down, I told Dr. Herson as much, because I knew my symptoms veered from classic textbook descriptions. Still, elephants straying from the Serengeti to my sternum are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You should do something to lower your cholesterol levels, but you know, some people have high serum levels, but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deposit in on their arteries. Still, your LDL is too high.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I could see the wrap-up coming in his eyes, but I had another topic to discuss.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got one more thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
He paused. I assumed he was busy, so I tried to condense as best as possible , my little story. It came out in chunks.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I worked here twenty-five years ago as a respiratory therapist. There was a resuscitation in the CCU which we worked together on. It was a man in his forties. He was admitted and right away he arrested. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen him sitting up, talking to his wife and son, and as we worked on him, his son, who had been ushered out of the room, asked if he could come back in. You said, ‘Yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ”<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do remember that, but the details are vague. You know, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they are recommending these days, that family members participate more. It really depends on the age. Teenagers, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d still say no to.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You were ahead of your time. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been part of two hundred or so resuscitations by then, and that was a first. No physician had ever let a family member watch. But, here was his son, barely twenty years old, whispering in his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ear, begging him to come back. <\/p>\n
After it was over I complimented you for letting him into the room, and you said, ‘How could I say no?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I was glad you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say no, because I thought afterwards that his son would have no if-only\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. He came in and he did everything he could to bring his father back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Herson walked back to where I was sitting and opened his textbook to a page of black and used-to-be-white graphs. He angled his straight edge so that it would intersect my age with my treadmill results. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153See, this shows … Continue reading