Rebecca S.

I have been in almost constant pain for the past five years, ever since an auto accident.Most of you know that I love children.I love working with children and my whole life revolves around them.I’m an elementary school teacher.One of the biggest concerns I’ve had so far, is that I want to have kids of my own someday, but I couldn’t in my previous condition.I also wanted to be able to do my job, but what most of you don’t know is that last September, I walked into my principal’s office and I told him that I was quitting my job. I couldn’t do the work anymore. He just needed to fill out the paperwork so I could leave.I was trying very hard to keep myself from crying.

My principal asked, “Rebecca, what’s wrong?”So I told him all about my accident, the pain, and the surgeries.

He asked, “Can’t you go to a doctor?”I told him I had been to a doctor—plenty of them!

He said, “Can’t you take some pills?”I answered, trust me, I’ve taken plenty of pills--all kinds of pills--and they don’t help.

Finally, he asked, “Can’t you go to a specialist?”I answered that I once had a specialist named Dr. Branco, but I lost him.He moved to a new program and I had tried to write and email him.

I told my principal it was not fair to me, to my students, to my family, nor to everyone around me to continue working.I couldn’t even get my head to calm down enough to check emails in the morning or make lesson plans.There was no way I could continue to do my job.I’m very grateful that my principal told me to take lunch and go think about my decision.I got in my car and I drove to the parking lot of a nearby gas station---and there I just gave up.

I was crying. I couldn’t breathe.Every breath was shallow.I was dizzy.I couldn’t think straight.I was in such pain!I knew I couldn’t go back in the classroom. I wasn’t sure I could even drive home.I had just decided to pick up my cell phone and dial 911 to get some help.

Suddenly, my phone rang.A woman said, “I want to speak to Rebecca.This is Susan the Physician Assistant at the Rosomoff Comprehensive Pain Center.I just read the emails you sent to Dr. Branco.I want to talk to you because I think we can do a lot to help you.”

I told Susan that she couldn’t have called at a worse time and that couldn’t she just call back another time?And Susan said, “Rebecca, I don’t think I’m going to call you back later.I think now is the perfect time for us to talk.”And she talked me down out of my anxiety and helped me with my stress, and at the end of the conversation I actually drove back to work because I had a plan to come here.

Sometimes I wonder if this Team knows how much hope you give patients just by the very fact that you’re here.Just because I knew I was coming here, I was able to finish the school year.I didn’t short change my students; they did very well. And a lot of good things came of that.Many people and students were impacted in very good ways beyond just me.And I wanted this Team to know that . . . that it wasn’t just me that you helped, and it wasn’t just after I came here that you helped.It was all the phone calls before admission . . . calls from Susan and Dr. Branco and others.Everyone was checking up on me.Any time I felt maybe I couldn’t keep going, I remembered I was scheduled to come here and you were going to make everything OK.And you have carried through with everything that I thought that you would.You were everything that I was hoping for these past five years.So I can’t really thank you enough . . .