When my wife and I sit together at our small Thanksgiving gathering this year, we will be doing so with healthier bodies and warmer hearts thanks to the wonderful care and support we’ve received from health care providers throughout the Upper Valley.
Like many of our friends and family members in their 70s, we are experiencing medical challenges that remind us we are no longer “middle aged.” Two recent medical problems made us aware and deeply appreciative of the health care providers who work tirelessly and lovingly on behalf of patients throughout our region.
Since the beginning of this year, my wife found it increasingly difficult to do any kind of extended exercise due to severe pain in her hip. After trying various forms of physical therapy, yoga and chiropractic alternatives, she decided to have hip replacement surgery. In September, following same-day surgery, she left Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital and navigated the sidewalk to our car using a walker. Astonishingly, within weeks, she had abandoned the walker, then a cane, and was painlessly walking on the level trails of Hanover’s Trescott Water Supply Lands with her hiking poles.
My health problems were more complicated. I experienced a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, a chronic condition initially diagnosed more than 40 years ago. It periodically and unpredictably flared up from time to time until 15 years ago, when it went into a lengthy and unprecedented remission. Unfortunately, this colitis flare-up did not respond to the usual pharmaceutical therapies. Consequently, I spent a week at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where I was closely examined by teams of doctors from various disciplines. Thanks to the interventions developed by the medical team at DHMC, it will be possible for me to eat whatever I choose to for Thanksgiving and join my wife walking in the woods in the weeks ahead.
My wife’s new hip and the new drug therapies that helped bring my colitis under control are miracles of medical science and technology. The doctors who performed my wife’s surgery and the doctors who determined the best course of action for my care were all remarkably gifted and insightful. Each doctor treated us with compassion. Each had a sincere concern for our frame of mind as well as our physical challenges.
Looking back on our recent medical experiences, though, my wife and I came to appreciate that the hands-on providers who support the doctors are the true healers. Doctors provide the technical expertise — everyone else provides the heart.
The nurses who cared for my wife after her out-patient surgery and the occupation and physical therapists who coached her back to health in our home and in their offices were full of positive energy and encouragement. Their infectious spirit helped my wife’s healing at least as much as the deft work of the surgeon.
My week-long experience with the caregivers at DHMC was even more heartwarming. Working day-in-and-day-out with patients who have complicated illnesses, serious injuries and high stress levels takes an emotional toll, even when a hospital is fully staffed.
Anyone who reads the news realizes that nurses and other front-line providers are now under even more pressure because of staffing shortages and the ebbs and flows of COVID-19 cases. These work-related pressures did not change the attitudes of the nurses or other care providers.
The nurses’ sunny dispositions, good humor, commitment to care and willingness to help each other out overcame the challenges they were facing. Every nurse we encountered over the course of our week there was relentlessly positive, attuned to the unique needs of each patient, and eager to do whatever was needed to help the patients heal in every dimension.
Indeed, everyone we came into contact with had unfailingly positive attitudes: from the receptionists who patiently handled our calls to the teams that screened us as we entered offices or labs to the staff who made sure we had all the paperwork we needed for discharge. Their kindness and patience reduced the stress that accompanies ill health and contributed to healing.
One final point of gratitude on our list this Thanksgiving: We left the hospital without financial concerns. Thanks to the payroll taxes we and our employers paid while we were working, most of the health care described in this column was covered. We are grateful for the legislation passed and the investments made on our behalf over the decades, and grateful for the existence of a program that helps bring us piece of mind and good health today.
We both hope and pray that the day will come when everyone can have the same piece of mind and same kind of loving care we received.
Wayne Gersen lives in Etna.