Yesterday: Day of Nostalgia and Cardiology
A few months ago, my Cardiologist here at Cornell left to form his own practice. I wish him well, and he was excellent, but it got me thinking about my care.
Effective treatment of congenital heart defects is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first generation of people who received these surgeries as babies are just now getting into adulthood. Unfortunately, there are relatively few places that have specialists in adults with congenital heart issues and Cornell isn't one of them. Fortunately, Columbia is one of them, and since they're affiliated with Cornell, I don't feel too guilty about going there.
In fact, Columbia Presbyterian Babies Hospital is where I had my initial surgeries as a child. My cardiologist back then was Dr. Welton Gersony, a pioneer in the field. Well, I was pleasantly shocked to learn that, although he'd retired, his daughter, Dr. Deborah Gersony, is a cardiologist specializing in adults with congenital heart issues! Yesterday, I had my first appointment with her.
Upon walking into the entrance to the hospital at 161 Ft. Washington Ave., I was completely awash with the feeling of, "I've been here before!" One of my very earliest memories was me being pushed out of the lobby of Columbia Presbyterian in a wheelchair, and this was that very lobby with the grey granite walls. I remember the sun shining in brightly that day, so it looked a little different since yesterday was overcast, but there's no doubt it was the same place. The nostalgia was truly overwhelming.
So I went up to see Dr. Gersony, and we chatted about my history for a good long time. She examined me, and I had an echocardiogram done. Then, Dr. Gersony actually came into the echo room and looked at the results right then and there! I've never seen a doctor read it right in front of you before. Her general impression was that everything's perfectly fine with my heart right now, although I'm doing a few more tests on Monday.
I went back to work for the afternoon, and then played our first (and last) game of our softball league's playoffs. We were soundly defeated.
Still, filled with the nostalgia of the day, I finally got around to scanning some of the old papers my Mom had brought with her when she came to visit. The most fascinating things were old programs from shows I'd done in high school. Also interesting was a "graduation packet" I'd received but never examined. One contained a coupon for a free chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A at the Broward Mall. Woo hoo! Who knew that graduating high school could have such benefits! (Unfortunately, it expired 17 years ago.) Another was a small card advertising a service called KIT (Keep In Touch) with an 800 number to call if you moved. Their corporate motto should have been, "Gee, I hope this new Internet thing doesn't take off!"
So I scanned the photos, uploaded them to Facebook, and tagged them with the members of the cast. I was actually surprised how complete the coverage of the cast is in my Facebook friends list.
I can't imagine that anyone who is interested hasn't seen them, but if you're curious, you can find them here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141351&id=568534615&l=5065ddf51d
Effective treatment of congenital heart defects is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first generation of people who received these surgeries as babies are just now getting into adulthood. Unfortunately, there are relatively few places that have specialists in adults with congenital heart issues and Cornell isn't one of them. Fortunately, Columbia is one of them, and since they're affiliated with Cornell, I don't feel too guilty about going there.
In fact, Columbia Presbyterian Babies Hospital is where I had my initial surgeries as a child. My cardiologist back then was Dr. Welton Gersony, a pioneer in the field. Well, I was pleasantly shocked to learn that, although he'd retired, his daughter, Dr. Deborah Gersony, is a cardiologist specializing in adults with congenital heart issues! Yesterday, I had my first appointment with her.
Upon walking into the entrance to the hospital at 161 Ft. Washington Ave., I was completely awash with the feeling of, "I've been here before!" One of my very earliest memories was me being pushed out of the lobby of Columbia Presbyterian in a wheelchair, and this was that very lobby with the grey granite walls. I remember the sun shining in brightly that day, so it looked a little different since yesterday was overcast, but there's no doubt it was the same place. The nostalgia was truly overwhelming.
So I went up to see Dr. Gersony, and we chatted about my history for a good long time. She examined me, and I had an echocardiogram done. Then, Dr. Gersony actually came into the echo room and looked at the results right then and there! I've never seen a doctor read it right in front of you before. Her general impression was that everything's perfectly fine with my heart right now, although I'm doing a few more tests on Monday.
I went back to work for the afternoon, and then played our first (and last) game of our softball league's playoffs. We were soundly defeated.
Still, filled with the nostalgia of the day, I finally got around to scanning some of the old papers my Mom had brought with her when she came to visit. The most fascinating things were old programs from shows I'd done in high school. Also interesting was a "graduation packet" I'd received but never examined. One contained a coupon for a free chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A at the Broward Mall. Woo hoo! Who knew that graduating high school could have such benefits! (Unfortunately, it expired 17 years ago.) Another was a small card advertising a service called KIT (Keep In Touch) with an 800 number to call if you moved. Their corporate motto should have been, "Gee, I hope this new Internet thing doesn't take off!"
So I scanned the photos, uploaded them to Facebook, and tagged them with the members of the cast. I was actually surprised how complete the coverage of the cast is in my Facebook friends list.
I can't imagine that anyone who is interested hasn't seen them, but if you're curious, you can find them here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141351&id=568534615&l=5065ddf51d