Recently Retired Schoolteacher Detects Serious Issue at Priority Care Appointment

Watch Debbie share her story

Debbie Elbert is a recently retired schoolteacher, and also a TriHealth patient.

“I had a wonderful doctor who sent a letter that said they were moving out of town,” Debbie said. “I should have gotten referred to another doctor but I didn’t – so when I was not feeling well, I was without a primary care doctor.”

Fortunately, Debbie and her husband were familiar with their closest TriHealth Priority Care location and were able to get her in for a check.

“After the nurse practitioner spent some time with me listening to me describe my pain, she tried to encourage me to go straight to the hospital,” Debbie recalled. “Looking back – I should have.”

The nurse practitioner was able to convince Debbie to get a CT scan.

“I’m really grateful to her,” she described. “She helped me understand that there was perhaps some urgency to this without trying to scare me.”

While still in the lobby following the scan at Bethesda North Hospital, Debbie received a phone call about her results. When she answered, she was given clear instructions: Go directly to the emergency room.

“It was just a short walk over to the emergency room,” she said. “I was quickly put into a room and surrounded by multiple doctors, and I had testing done that determined I needed surgery that was not an emergency.”

Debbie then met her surgeon, Dr. Hamza Guend, soon after.

“He was wonderful… he sat down and explained things to me,” she said. “He wasn’t just standing at a computer staring at the screen and talking – he helped me to understand what was going on.”

After her surgery in May, Debbie learned from some of her care providers about different ways to continue taking care of herself such as pain management and how to communicate what she was feeling.

“I really appreciated her giving me that language,” she said. “It helped my healing process, which was really important.”

During her recovery, Debbie was surprised to be checked in on by her own doctors and surgeons.

“I just really appreciate that with their busy schedules that they would come and check in on me,” she said. “I never felt like I was cast aside or anything like that – I always felt like I was heard.”