Word to the Wise...

**Disclaimer** This is not a cheerful post, but a reminder to take care of yourself.

As a nurse on a transplant floor in NYC, I see a lot of crazy stuff. Really crazy. But perhaps nothing like the patient I had over the weekend. A gentleman in his late 50s came into the ER with a foot sore that he's had for about 6 months and has been treating at home. Now he's always thought of himself as healthy, so thought very little of this sore and figured he could take care of it himself without going to the doctor. Trust me, I get that, as I hate going to the doctor as much as anyone else. But 6 months! He finally came in because the sore got worse and really required medical attention.
Now here's the kicker: this "healthy" man hasn't been to the doctor in 2 years, and thus didn't know that he'd developed diabetes and had a diabetic foot ulcer. So the surgeon came in to see this man and said pretty much this: "I'm Dr. ____, I'm going to take care of you, we'll get you down to the OR today because this is pretty much a matter of life or limb, and hopefully we won't have to amputate your whole leg". How's that for a zinger of an introduction! And you know what, they ended up amputating his big toe.
Moral of the story: Feeling healthy isn't the same thing as actually being healthy. Please go to the doctor every once in a while, if for nothing else than to support those poor starving nurses trying to pay off their student loans. And seriously, if you have a gaping wound in your foot, march yourself into the doctor! No one wants the "life or limb" speech.

**Addendum** That same patient went for an echocardiogram today for a funky heart beat. Turns out his left anterior descending artery (basically the big whopper of blood supply to the heart) was 99% blocked. In fancy shmancy medical terms, this is known as "the widowmaker". Ok, maybe not so fancy schmancy. This guy is pretty much a walking time-bomb, possibly days away from the most stunningly awful heart attack nature makes. Maybe that little foot sore was a blessing in disguise. I don't envy him the disillusion, though.