Above and Beyond
Generally speaking, I always feel that Dr. Lisa Sardanopoli goes above and beyond in every encounter we have. But this story will focus one exceptional time.
I hadn't felt well for several weeks. A cold I got from daycare grandkids wouldn't go away, and actually was getting worse. My husband, who was in poor health himself, suggested I should call my doctor. I kept waiting hoping to get better. Until I started feeling short of breath and progressively sicker. I called Lisa and she said to come right in. A friend drove me to her office. I was seen immediately.
After a short examination of my lungs and a pulse ox reading, Lisa said, "I am pretty sure you have pneumonia and you need to go to the Emergency Department now to be checked out." I started to protest and say that I needed to be home to take care of my husband. Kindly, but firmly, she insisted, left the exam room and came back with a wheelchair, announcing that she was taking me to ED. (The medical office building is connected to the hospital and ED). I did have pneumonia and was started on two antibiotics and discharged with orders to return if I had a high fever or other accelerating symptoms.
Lisa called me every day -- sometimes several times a day. She not only kept constant tabs on my condition, she called my oncologist to make him aware of what was going on. The friend who took me to Lisa's office tells this story often, prefacing it with, "I couldn't believe that Dr. Sardanopoli actually TOOK Maria from her office to the ED in a wheelchair>". Lisa knows me well. I wanted to go home and try to line up coverage for my husband's care before going to the ED. She knew that others would step up and they did. I was in bed for at least a week. My daughter moved in to take care of me and her dad. I had no idea of how sick I was, but it was about six weeks before I felt "over" the pneumonia. In retrospect, it was much worse than I realized. Things could have turned out much differently withour the focused, caring and insistant care I received from Lisa SardanopoIi. I was cared for as Lisa would have treated her own family.
When you go to a doctor, you usually leave with some suggestions (or outright orders!) to modify your behavior in ways that will improve health... and you usually know all or most of these things already. Somehow that knowledge doesn't often translate into action. Lots of reasons for that. But Dr. Lisa Sardanopoli has a way of caring about her patients that makes those health-supporting behaviors more meaningful and achievable. You understand that she wants you to be well for your own quality of life. I don't succeed in following fully all of the gentle directions she gives. And I never feel afraid to return and admit it. Lisa's is firm, gentle, thorough, smart and professional... an amazing doctor who knows and understands me as a patient, and also as a person... in the fullest sense.