They zapped me—again
After six AFib-free years, it happened again. The whole experience reminded me how easy it is to completely devalue the significance of simple everyday actions.
When I woke in the morning I noticed my heart but thought it was just a strong heart beat and didn’t think much of it. 2 hours later I ran up two flights of stairs to talk to Lyn and I’m out of breath.
“This is weird.” I check my pulse. “Hon, let’s go to the hospital. I’m in AFib.”
Sure enough I was and while the previous time they cardio-verted me (i.e got me back into regular sinus rhythm) with an electric shock; the doctor says, “Would you Iike to participate in a research study testing a new drug that promises we can more effectively get people out of AFib ?”
“Absolutely. I’m in !”
They prep me, cover off the consent forms and get the IV ready to go. Lindsay, the doctor says, “Let’s go.” and 10 minutes of dripping begins. No change in my condition. We wait 20 minutes and try it again for 10 minutes. No change. It’s time to get out the electric paddles.
I’m lying in the bed looking at the medical team and just as I’m starting to feel the anesthetic, I say, “Tess, Lindsay, Glenn, Austen—you need to know I am grateful for you and the work you do.” I was able to get a quick word for each of them and last I can remember is saying something like, “See you on the other side.”
Seven minutes later, my eyes open, “That feels better.”
As I’m being cleaned up and getting myself together to leave, the doctor and researcher both say, “Thank you so much for being part of this research and helping improve the care we will be able to provide to future patients.”
I never really thought about that. Heck, the reason getting cardio-verted is as routine as picking up the groceries is because of the thousands of patients and experiments that happened long before I even knew AFib existed. And here I am, a grateful beneficiary.
While the new drug did not work on me and it took a few extra hours in the hospital, I walked out of Emergency feeling like these simple actions had, in a very small way, paid it forward by helping future AFib patients for everything I had received.
Given it was medical research, it is fairly easy to connect the dots between my actions and paying it forward, but there are countless other simple everyday actions are also ways of paying it forward. For example:
Raising children
Caring for and treating employees fairly
Tending to your personal health
Volunteering
Having a conversation with a parent
And the list goes on
So for you—what simple everyday action would you add to the list ?
