An upcoming cause, now near and dear to my heart, is breast cancer, and the Susan G. Komen Northwest Ohio Race for the Cure® is being held downtown on Sept. 27.
UT Medical Center is a partner of the 16th annual event, and we’re looking for walkers and runners to join our team.
I would like to put out a personal request that UT breast cancer survivors join me as a team member. I have complementary registrations for the first eight UT faculty or staff members who are also breast cancer survivors that sign up for our team – just post a comment to this journal or email meand I’ll get a registration form to you.
If you’d like, stop by the Skyview Food Court between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27, you can get a registration form from Michelle Giovanoli, radiation oncology tech manager, and buy raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt made by the Promise Quilters. Read more.
Please join us in helping the Komen Foundation support programs that help the underserved in northwest Ohio get the screening and treatment they need for breast cancer.
I want to dedicate today’s journal entry specifically to physicians and health-care providers at UT Medical Center.
Today can be just another day.
But it doesn’t have to be just another day. It can be the mark of something remarkable.
As a medical facility, we talk about transforming the culture here. We talk about implementing the incredibly high-reaching iCARE plan.
On Thursday, Aug. 20, faculty, staff and students interacting with patients and visitors at UTMC hospitals and clinics are invited to publicly proclaim their willingness to provide “extreme patient centeredness” by signing an iCARE banner that will be displayed in the hospital during the coming months. Get more info on the festivities.
A recent visit to UTMC by John Nance, author of Why Hospitals Should Fly, helped remind many of us – whether we are an administrator, a physician, a nurse, a custodial worker, or a telephone operator, realize that there are simple things everybody who works here can do to make patients the safest they can be while in our care, all the while making UT Medical Center an enjoyable place to work.
It’s the little things that can make a big difference – for our patients, for our co-workers, for ourselves.
Things like:
Getting to know even just the names of others who work here
Speaking up when something might not be right – no matter what
Acknowledging – and embracing – the fact that human error is unavoidable
Stopping and picking up trash instead of walking over it
It all starts with each of us. It’s all about remembering why we have chosen to work at an institution that cares for patients. If we can keep that in mind, the rest should fall into place.
Okay, so I started a blog entry while I was waiting to see my oncologist, Dr. Mohamed this morning. I was eagerly anticipating the report on whether I would need chemotherapy or not. I wrote about how it feels to think about losing your hair and all of the other fears that come with chemo.
I’ve cried two times since learning my diagnosis – when I first got the news, and when I realized that chemo was a real possibility.
But it all seems moot now, because I learned that chemo is not part of my treatment plan! This was the absolute best news I could have received today.
This breast cancer patient is doing just fine. I made it through my initial lumpectomy and another very minor surgery shortly after to remove just a little more tissue. Lymph nodes were confirmed negative for cancer and the tumor was confirmed to be less than a centimeter in size. Surgery hurt, but not too much.
And something I feel compelled to share with the world. Please, please, please take this as gospel, whether you work with patients in your profession or simply experience a friend of family member getting diagnosed with a medical condition – respect patient privacy!
Now, I’ve obviously been very open about my own journey through cancer, “coming out” with a blog entry a few weeks ago. It was a natural no-brainer thing for me to do.
But… that was my story to share or not to share, and the same goes for anyone receiving medical treatment for anything. Many a woman has approached me since that blog post telling me she could never be so public about a cancer diagnosis.
And if someone took it upon themselves to “out” me, I would have been more ticked off than I’ve ever been in my life. Believe me – you don’t want to tick off a cancer patient.
So please. Don’t seek this kind of info out on anyone, and don’t share it if you are informed, at least without asking the person if she/he wants to you let others know.
Now I’ll step off my soapbox to celebrate my wonderful news, but before I go, I want to thank the many, many folks who sent words of support over the past few weeks. I firmly believe that all of the positive vibes have helped me to heal and to feel great about my own future!
If you have any tips for people on supporting breast cancer patients as they move through the journey, please share in a comment to this post — your words may help someone else!
Dr. Joseph Atallah is one of the pain specialists at UT Medical Center. I remember meeting him about two years ago when he first arrived and was impressed by his approach and his demeanor, and he’s being featured on our MedTV program, so I thought I’d share with you what I’ve learned from and about him.
Dr. Atallah is an anesthesiologist by specialty with a sub-specialty in pain medicine. What I really like about his philosophical approach to pain is his use of pain-management methods that are not pain-killing drugs, which, when used long-term, can cause addiction, loss of quality of life and other health problems.
You’ll see in the MedTV video how just one of the non-narcotic pain management options available is spinal cord stimulation, which uses the implantation of leads, much like those used with a pacemaker, to block pain messages in the spinal cord from reaching the brain.
This may sound a little freaky to people not dealing with chronic pain, but those battling the physically and emotionally taxing condition see methods like this as a beam of light in a sea of darkness.
Chronic pain is often a result of orthopaedic conditions, and Dr. Atallah works closely with orthopaedic specialists at UT Medical Center – his medical office is even located in the UT Orthopaedic Center. His special interests include back pain, failed back syndrome, cancer pain, CPRS and phantom pain.
In addition to learning about the philosophy and methods he uses to treat chronic pain, I’ve learned something equally important about Dr. Atallah – he’s a compassionate, kind-hearted man. I’ve witnessed him on the patient-care side of things, and he always seems to put himself in his patient’s shoes, keeping at the front of his mind that these folks are often just plain miserable, both physically and mentally, many desperate for relief, sick of pain medication that puts them in a fog and often doesn’t help the pain very much. He works hard – squeezing patients in so he can help them as soon as possible. And, finally, he’s dedicated to teaching medical students and residents about this important area of medicine.
Areas of the health-care industry often pride themselves on treating the “whole” patient. Dr. Atallah definitely does.
Journal author’s note: Today’s entry was written by Felicia Guerrero, a friend and colleague who leads marketing and outreach efforts for UT’s new Heart and Vascular Center.
I’m looking forward to working this weekend. While that might seem odd to some, it’s because I will be representing UTMC and the Heart and Vascular Center at Ohio’s 15th Annual South of the Border Festival, a festival held each year in Perrysburg Heights centered around the fabulous Latino culture of family, food, music and dancing. This is a “festival with a focus” with 100% of proceeds benefitting free programming at the Perrysburg Heights Community Center.
My involvement in the festival was sparked by UT’s participation in the African-American festival. I’ve been to the South of the Border festival in the past, and it’s a well-attended and fun cultural event. My purpose is to provide the Latino community with health screenings and information about caring for their cardiovascular health. About two years ago, my mother-in-law died suddenly of a massive heart attack. She never had any cardiac history or symptoms, so her heart attack and death were shocking. About a year later, I began working in cardiology here at UT and learned a lot from Healthcare Marketing and Community Wellness about promoting awareness, education and prevention of health problems. This focus on prevention reminded me of my mother-in-law and how much I wish we could have prevented her heart attack, and this motivated me to want to help others.
At the festival next weekend, our staff and volunteers will provide information about healthy eating, managing high blood pressure and resources for specific cardiac diseases. Additionally, we’ll provide screenings for blood pressure and cholesterol, two important indicators of cardiovascular disease. If I can prompt just one person to go see their doctor about recent symptoms, I will feel I’ve accomplished my purpose at the festival. At a family party last weekend I mentioned the festival to all my family and asked them to spread the word about the screenings. My mom called me two days later indicating a coworker of hers was planning to come get screened, and I hope many will take advantage of the screenings.
So I am looking forward to spreading the word about UT’s awesome new Heart and Vascular Center and providing education and screenings for a population I feel can absolutely benefit. Of course I’m also hoping to have time to enjoy some great Mexican food and watch the talented folk group dancing.
The Ohio South of the Border Festival, starting at 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7, and at noon on Saturday, Aug. 8, features live local entertainment, NW Ohio’s #1 Mexican Folkloric Dancers: Ballet Folklorico Imagenes Mexicanas along with Mariachi Las Alteñas – an all Female group from San Antonio, Texas. Headliners include Jay Perez, La Sombra and Ruben Vela. For more information visit the festival page on Facebook.
Tomorrow I’m having a lumpectomy. I was diagnosed with breast cancer on June 29.
It was caught really early, the tumor is small, and I’m going to be just fine.
This blog isn’t about me, though, it’s about life at UT Medical Center and the people who are at the “pulse” of the care here.
So I chose to get my care here and wanted to share what my experience on the patient side has been so far.
Dr. Anita Leininger is my surgeon. I’ve worked with her professionally on projects focusing on women’s health. She’s not a pushover. She’s smart, confident and to the point. I like that style, plus her reputation in breast health is excellent.
What I found as a patient is that Dr. Leininger’s determination makes me feel that she’s got my best interest in mind and she’ll fight for me. I’ve also seen a compassion that’s not patronizing, but inspiring. I feel pumped and ready to fight this thing when I leave her office. And the rest of her staff members aren’t to be overlooked. They’re attentive, and appropriately upbeat.
One thing I quickly learned was that the beginning of this process, results in a lot of medical appointments – from initial imaging to biopsy to follow up, then, if cancer is diagnosed, on to the surgeon, the oncologist and the radiation oncologist. The nice thing was that the Comprehenisve Breast Center (Dr. Leininger’s UT home) handled most of the scheduling.
I was seen next by Dr. John Feldmeier to discuss radiation. I’ve known Dr. Feldmeier for years. He’s one of the most mild-mannered physicians I know. I remember introducing him to my husband at a fundraising event years ago and saying something like, “God forbid if I ever got cancer, this is the guy I’d want to have treat me.”
I’ve spent a lot of time in radiation oncology in my marketing role, learning about what they do. During the appointment, we talked mostly about potential side effects. I saw one of UTMC’s heroes, Ginger Warner, a radiation tech and breast cancer survivor herself. In a weird way, it feels like home there, which is a good thing, because I’ll be dropping by five days a week for a number of weeks for treatment. And the physicist, Dr. Ishmael Parsai, who handles the complicated mathematical stuff that makes sure the radiation goes exactly where it needs to, has put up with my stupid questions for years. Now I’ll benefit from his genius.
Finally I saw Dr. Iman Mohamed, who is my oncologist. Again, a woman I’ve known for years. She’s somewhat softspoken but oozes confidence. She told me that I have all of the qualities of a malignant tumor that a patient wants who is facing breast cancer. That sounds bizarre to people who haven’t had cancer, I know, but it was music to my ears. Hormone receptive. Small. HER2 negative. I’m going to be just fine, she says.
And I believe her.
For those of you who know me but didn’t know about the cancer diagnosis, please understand that it’s just plain weird to call somebody up and say, “Hey, just wanted you to know that I have breast cancer.”
I’m sharing a glimpse of my experience in the hopes it can help others – as patients, we just don’t need the anxiety of not knowing what comes next.
I’ll keep you posted, but I’ll be back to writing about the other great things going on at UTMC before you know it!
John J. Nance is visiting UT’s Health Science Campus right now, and I’m so glad that he’s here!
Nance is a best-selling author and well-known international advocate of crew resource management and expanded human performance training. He speaks to a wide variety of audiences, including medical professionals, and he is a founding board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a mission, simply put, “to improve the safety of patients.”
Nance’s book, “Why Hospitals Should Fly – The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care,” outlines the barriers to better practices within hospitals, using analogies to flight as examples.
He spoke to UT physicians and administrators last night, and I was lucky enough to also be a part of the audience.
Nance talked very pointedly about what he sees as a health-care cultural barrier to patient safety – absence of the assumption of human error.
Humans are not perfect. Period.
UTMC has a lot of brilliant, talented humans taking care of patients, but none of them are perfect.
Nance is challenging everyone who delivers health care to actually embrace that fact. He is challenging doctors, nurses, techs and everyone else taking care of a patient to work as a team, not as a group with a commander who isn’t to be questioned and followers who stay silent and follow orders.
This journal feeds both to a Web site for UT faculty, staff and students, and to UTMC’s public Web site, so I have a challenge for all of you…
Regardless of whether you’re a physician, a nurse or a patient receiving care, each of you is part of that health care team. If you have a concern, a question, or something in your gut just doesn’t feel right, you have a responsibility to speak up. As Nance said last night, “If you see it, you own it.”
Even if, in the end, your concern is unfounded, I think a patient would rather it be checked, don’t you?
As the debate wages over what to do about the country’s health-care system, I know that the issue has long been rolling around in the mind of Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, UT’s provost, executive vice president for health affairs, and dean of the college of medicine.
I’ve heard him eloquently discuss it on a number of occasions, and now his thoughts are out there in an Op-Ed piece he wrote for The Blade.
“You don’t have to read the pages of the newspaper every day to realize that northwest Ohio, Michigan, and the country are going through one of the toughest economic periods of our lifetimes. Because of that, some have suggested that President Obama focus solely on the economy and save the job of overhauling our nation’s health-care system for another day.
“I’d like to point out, as the President did during his June 15 address at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, that the two issues are inextricably linked. No health care reform – no economic recovery,” he writes.
So what are your thoughts? Especially about Dr. Gold’s last point – that each of us can do our part by taking better care of ourselves and our families.
What are you doing to take care of yourself, and, by extension, helping with the health-care crisis?
The University of Toledo’s new Heart and Vascular Center began seeing patients in March, but the official event opening the facility was held on May 21. You can watch remarks made by UT leaders.
The UT Heart and Vascular Center is the community’s first integrated center for patient care, education and translational research in cardiac and vascular diseases.
So what does that mean, really?
It means that the center brings together multiple specialties, including cardiology, vascular medicine, vascular surgery, cardiac surgery and cardiac rehabilitation. It also means that researchers are in the office next door, instead of across campus. The cardiologist and the vascular surgeon are across the hall from each other, not across town.
And I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill specialists or researchers. I’m talking about the only ones in the area who offer expert care in curing atrial fibrillation (the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm), treating syncope (loss of consciousness and posture) and repairing the most traumatic of vascular injuries. I’m talking about researchers who have been awarded $25 million research grants by the National Institutes of Health to determine the best treatment for patients who have high blood pressure and blockage of the renal artery that supplies blood to the kidney.
So congrats to our cardiologists, vasucular surgeons and the health-care professionals who work with them. They now have a home that reflects their “university-quality” expertise!
Anna, right, taking acting pointers from Amy Weber, the commercial director/producer.
When one thinks about the process of producing a television commercial (and most never think about it), the relationships that ensue from the process don’t normally come to mind.
But a commercial shoot is in some ways like a crisis situation. Not in a bad way, but in the way that a crisis results in a special shared experience among people that would for no other reason join to accomplish a common goal.
UT Medical Center’s “alumni” spot was just that, and I got to interact with some incredibly talented, creative individuals. I also go to interact with some inspiring survivors of medical conditions.
Anna Chlebowski is one of those survivors. She’s actually worked at UT (formerly MCO) for more than 20 years, but on the academic side of the house. Anna’s an administrative secretary, a mother, a wife, and a heart attack survivor.
I first heard Anna talk about her heart attack at a women heart-health luncheon we held on campus for faculty and staff.
Anna is 50 going on 35 – she’s fit, she has a kind voice that (to me) has a hint of a Minnesotan accent (I don’t know its origin), and you can see her genuineness through her beautiful brown eyes.
She’s a survivor in many ways. She survived the loss of her brother to a heart attack on Dec. 11, 2008. Then, she survived her own heart attack on Dec. 28, just weeks later.
Anna as a UTMC alumna.
Like many women, Anna didn’t initially recognize the symptoms. She felt intermittent, intense pain between her shoulder blades during the week before she came to UTMC’s emergency room. She told me that she had convinced herself it was pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining of the lungs. After all, she’s always exercised and eaten right, she’s young and the epitome of good health. So why would it be her heart?
But it was her heart. But with the help of a multidisciplinary team of techs, nurses and other health professionals, and Dr. William Colyer, who did her heart catheterization, Dr. Samer Khouri, who cared for her in the hospital, and Dr. Dalynn Badenhop and his cardiac rehabilitation program, Anna’s back out there, and now she’s taking her experience to the streets, so to speak, sharing her story with us and with the American Heart Association.
The next time you have the option to take an elevator or the stairs, take the stairs. Choose the apple instead of the doughnut. Go an hour longer without a cigarette, or better yet, kick the habit. Do it in honor of Anna and the millions of others who are advocating for heart-health awareness.
A journal about how the people at UT Medical Center are improving the human condition. UTMC provides compassionate, university-caliber patient care while supporting and enhancing the health education of The University of Toledo.
An upcoming cause, now near and dear to my heart, is breast cancer, and the Susan G. Komen Northwest Ohio Race for the Cure® is being held downtown on Sept. 27.
As a medical facility, we talk about transforming the culture here. We talk about implementing the incredibly high-reaching iCARE plan.
I’ve cried two times since learning my diagnosis – when I first got the news, and when I realized that chemo was a real possibility.
But… that was my story to share or not to share, and the same goes for anyone receiving medical treatment for anything. Many a woman has approached me since that blog post telling me she could never be so public about a cancer diagnosis.
Nance is a best-selling author and well-known international advocate of crew resource management and expanded human performance training. He speaks to a wide variety of audiences, including medical professionals, and he is a founding board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a mission, simply put, “to improve the safety of patients.”
