The family and I are on vacation now and I have the great fortune of spending time in the company of a true hero…West Point graduate…veteran of 3 tours to the middle east where his job was to lead a group of men involved in dealing with things that go boom. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Hurt Locker”, think that…only more sophisticated and, well…fact, not fiction.
I’ve been asking him questions about his experiences…and, as much as my previous work in the ER was intense and stressful…it doesn’t even compare to a workplace where explosions are literal and not just emotional outbursts by frustrated suburbanites.
While the stories are truly harrowing…it’s the philosophical approach his team took that was the most intriguing to me. My impression was…cuz I watched lots of cop shows growing up…that when the bomb squad finds a bomb they either diffuse it (sometimes whilst riding on a skateboard under a moving city bus driven by Sandra Bullock) or just blow it up.
WRONG.
That wouldn’t really solve much of anything in the long run. The bomb is bad…but the dude who will continue to make bombs and teach others to do so unless apprehended is WAY more dangerous. So the key is for the bomb squad to analyze the bomb as they diffuse it to figure out who made it so they can go after that psycho…and THEN blow it up.
The phrase that he told me which encapsulates this philosophy is “Think Left of Boom”. I couldnt visualize it at first but it looks kinda like this:
I added the “Zone of Regret” for poetic purposes. The point is, you don’t want to be thinking of how to handle the problem after the fact.
Since you’ve been reading my blog posts for a while now (and if you haven’t, it’s never too late to start…no worries I’ll wait until you’ve caught up before continuing……[whistling nondescript tune]……………great!), you know that I’m a sucker for a great metaphor…mixed or otherwise.
Thinking AT Boom is exactly how most aspects of modern healthcare have been operating for years. It’s predicated on the assumption…faith, really…that if you get a disease, nerds like me will have figured out which pill for you to take to make it all better….rather than society thinking LEFT of the Boom…being proactive…using disease prevention/health promotion as the best way to handle things.
In the ER I saw plenty of BOOM. Heart attack…boom. Stroke….boom. Hypertensive/Diabetic crises…BOOM. In the ER world, that stuff is called “job security”…but that’s cynical and I’m trying to scrub the callouses that built up over the years by using a
pumice stone of positivity
.
And metaphorical booms don’t just happen in the ER world. Thinking Left of Boom (TLOB) is absolutely true when it comes to vein disease.
Superficial venous insufficiency
, the underlying disorder that leads to chronic vein disease…and for many patients…symptomatic varicose and spider veins…starts in your teens….like tuition debt.
And, like tuition debt, accrues and gets more annoying and painful over time (hah!…another metaphor!). For men, this unrelenting process may continue unabated for many years in a slow, unrelenting way. For women who embark on the adventure known as pregnancy…things can get exponentially worse rapidly. No need for any more metaphors once you start bringing pregnancy into the picture. Nothing compares to it in life-altering complexity. [
word
!]
The scenario I see most often is that most men & women come to see me close to the point of the Boom…when things have gotten so aggravating symptom-wise and/or so life-intrusive aesthetically that they can’t take it anymore. Unfortunately, some patients finally come to see me AT THE BOOM: permanent skin changes like discoloration or scarring and even healed or active skin ulcers.
Part of my mission that I’ve chosen to accept…and thus sitting inside during Disney vacay with napping daughter at my side and typing on my laptop…is to get all y’all to start Thinking LEFT of Boom.
TLOB is absolutely the way to go when it comes to vein disease. Catching the problems early saves you a world of trouble. Plus…you’ve waited for the right time to deal with this issue: technology has caught up to your problem. I have an arsenal of minimally-invasive, maximally-comfortable procedures to handle whatever you throw at me. All of the procedures I offer share some pretty awesome qualities:
-
There is no down time. You can resume most rourine activities immediately after treatments.
-
Procedures are well tolerated. Little or no local anesthetic is ever required. Sedation is completely unnecessary.
-
Low risk and highly effective….the perfect combo!
-
Many procedures may be covered by commercial insurance and Medicare. [word!]
Getting you to start Thinking Left of Boom may lead you to a whole list of questions. No worries…my website is a wellspring of knowledge from which you are encouraged to drink freely during your tortuous trek accross the world of tortuous veins.
I’ve written a series of brief but informative FREE guides that may help you to learn about vein disease and then hopefully help you to Think and Act…Left of the Boom. Check them out:
-
Understanding Spider Vein Treatments Guide
<—
CLICK!
-
Understanding Varicose Veins
<—
CLICK!
-
Understanding the Costs of Vein Treatments
<
–CLICK!
Or..if you are ready to take the first step on the road to happier, healthier legs, call 847-272-8346 or click the button below to schedule your initial consultation appointment with me. See you soon!
<!–[if lte IE 8]>
<![endif]–>
hbspt.cta.load(491206, ’80e25add-f2e6-4534-b365-f4aa85a29bfa’, {});
