We Didn't Get Cold Feet
Authors: Sarah G. Candler
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2017)

On Being a Doctor17 October 2017We Didn't Get Cold FeetFREESarah G. Candler, MD, MPHSarah G. Candler, MD, MPHFrom Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M17-2364 Audio Reading - “We Didn't Get Cold Feet” Audio. Virginia L. Hood, MD, Annals Associate Editor, reads "We Didn't Get Cold Feet," by S.G. Candler. Your browser does not support the audio element. Audio player progress bar Step backward in current audio track Play current audio trackPause current audio track Step forward in current audio track Mute current audio trackUnmute current audio track 00:00/ SectionsAboutVisual AbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail We didn't get cold feet—just very, very wet. That's what I e-mailed my wedding guests 5 days before our big day. My fiancé and I had been glued to our TV in Houston all weekend, watching Harvey make landfall and devastate our friends' and neighbors' lives. We cautiously opened our front door with both relief and guilt. After 24 hours of sitting on our couch, we were exhausted from waiting for waters that never came.Throughout the week, our street remained dry enough for me to get safely to the VA hospital where I work as a primary care doctor. Our clinic was scheduled to be closed over the weekend, but I spent two nights on the plastic recliners in our treatment room in case I was needed the next day and couldn't get back in. I helped to staff one of our inpatient teaching services when a colleague at home was flooded in. Our team saw walk-in patients who had braved the storm for cuts, medications, or a tetanus shot (yes, a man did that!). By Tuesday, more than half of our staff was in the office and ready for whatever business came our way. We had scheduled appointments that were canceled, so we waited.As a primary care doctor, I wait a lot. Most of the benefits of my work won't be visible for months, years, or even decades. It's not the medical heroism of prime-time TV. Primary care takes patience. There are a few emergencies, however. This week, I stopped waiting for patients and went looking for them instead. I spent 10 hours at my desk Wednesday making phone calls. I started with kidney failure, heart failure, and diabetes—the patients who could die without their treatments. Only a few answered, so I left messages: “This is your doctor. If you can safely get to us, your VA is open.”Saturday I manned a mobile medical unit serving veterans in the community. I provided reassurance and medication refills. While the rest of the community was scrambling and displaced, the primary care providers were back at work, checking blood pressure and asking about sugars. I realized that what had initially seemed anticlimactic was exactly what my patients needed: support and reassurance from someone who knows that healing takes time.The decision to postpone the wedding was an easy one. Family and friends reported that airlines had already cancelled flights in anticipation of a backlog from the previous week's airport closures. Our vendors were drying out their own homes or those of their friends and families. Most important, we were exhausted. I called my parents to explain what was happening on the ground. The news showed the physical destruction, but the heartache and emotional toll, more difficult to capture on film, was pervasive. Even if everyone could get here and the vendors were all open, now was not a time to celebrate. Now we work. Hard. We do what we can. And then we wait. Comments0 CommentsSign In to Submit A Comment David M. Sack, MD, FACPConnecticut GI20 September 2017 Sympathies I want to extend my sympathies to you, Sarah, and your intended. Our son and his fiance had to call off their wedding set for Labor Day with 150 guests flying in from around the country. We in CT could only judge from TV videos what the situation was, and it looked bad. It was a heartbreaking decision for our future daughter-in-law to postpone the wedding celebration she had planned for a year, but they knew by Wednesday that the flooding had them licked. Nonetheless, they were determined to marry come hell or high water. And so they did. We flew in from CT and our other son and his family from CA. The couple were married by a Justice of the Peace before a very small group of family in a makeshift chapel. Family members briefly interrupted efforts to salvage their own homes or to help others. The kids plan to hold the elaborate part of the celebration next spring. We all realized that calling off a wedding is really an insignificant disappointment in the face of a disaster such as Harvey. Perhaps the newlyweds will embark on marriage with a well-calibrated sense of priorities. They did carry on with their honeymoon plans to fly off to Fiji the next day - perhaps to take the waters? Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.Corresponding Author: Sarah G. Candler, MD, MPH, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 604 Hyde Park Boulevard, Houston, TX 77006; e-mail, [email protected]com.This article was published at Annals.org on 12 September 2017. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement Audio Reading - “We Didn't Get Cold Feet” Audio. Virginia L. Hood, MD, Annals Associate Editor, reads "We Didn't Get Cold Feet," by S.G. Candler. Your browser does not support the audio element. Audio player progress bar Step backward in current audio track Play current audio trackPause current audio track Step forward in current audio track Mute current audio trackUnmute current audio track 00:00/ FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 17 October 2017Volume 167, Issue 8Page: 599KeywordsBlood pressureEmotionsHeart failureInpatientsRenal failureStormsTetanus ePublished: 12 September 2017 Issue Published: 17 October 2017 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2017 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...