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Intro: Riverside Healthcare puts the health and wellness information you need well within reach.

Liz Unruh (Host): Hello, listeners. And thanks for tuning into the Well Within Reach Podcast, brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. I'm your host, Liz Unruh. And joining me today is Tom Souligne. But now, a quick message about myChart.

MyChart ad: Healthcare can be confusing, but thanks to your myRiverside myChart, you can easily manage not only your care, but your family's as well. With a single click, your myRiverside myChart lets you stay well connected to the same information your provider sees. You can view your health history, get test results, request prescription refills, pay your bill or make an appointment. Manage your care from anywhere, your laptop, phone, or tablet. Learn more and enroll today at riversidemychart.org.

Host: And we're back. Thanks for joining us today, Tom.

Tom Souligne: Thank you very much for having me.

Host: Now, you are a patient with a great story. So before we jump into that story, would you be able to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Tom Souligne: Yes. I grew up, born and raised in Kankakee area. Family all pretty much stayed around town. Large family, three brothers and sisters, parents together. They've now passed, but Brother's still around town, sister's still around town, work in town at Dow Chemical. So, pretty much Kankakee born and raised and been here my whole life.

Host: Yeah. So, you have a lot of experience with Riverside, I'm sure, being in town.

Tom Souligne: Oh, yes.

Host: Well, we're here at the Lush Vine because your family attended a trivia night here with us about a year ago now, and encouraged you to get a CT heart scan.

Tom Souligne: Yes.

Host: Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Tom Souligne: That was her latest in a long line of encouraging me to do it. I have a really poor family history of heart problems, good family history as far as getting me to try something. My father had stents put in. He had a triple bypass. My older brother, Steve, died of a massive heart attack without knowing he had heart issues. So when she came home and got on me about it, and I was also switching doctors at the time, so I had a brand new physician I was going to where they delve into your family history. And you start talking and Dr. Williams was very quick to point out that I should definitely look into doing the CT heart scan. And for that month with a family history, which I definitely had, it was a free procedure, so it was a no-brainer.

Host: Yeah. That's really huge. I think it's interesting to know that you have the family history, but was there anything in your life that alluded to maybe you had a heart condition or some other type of health issue?

Tom Souligne: You know, I really did not. It always is in the back of your brain when you have a family history of it. No chest pains. No real shortness of breath. The thing that I was running into at that point was I was very tired. I was tired a lot. But getting older, not in the best shape. I work a hard job where I work 60 hours a week most weeks in a swing shift type environment. So, getting tired wasn't a real shocker. But when Lisa pointed out to me, my wife pointed out to me that, you know, you wanting to go to bed at 8:30 instead of 10:30, something's not right. So when I went to see a new doctor there, Dr. Williams, she set me up with the heart scan and really there were no issues that would point out I was having any type of heart problems.

Host: Yeah, I think that's interesting. It shows that, you know, sometimes that heart disease is kind of that silent, silent killer, for sure.

Tom Souligne: Very true.

Host: So, you said, you know, you saw your provider and they ordered the scan. Can you talk about your experience with scheduling and how that all worked?

It

Tom Souligne: really was so smooth. She put in the order for the scan. So, I called-- they called me actually, I believe, to settle it up. And it was done within five or the minutes on the phone. The scan was set up for me at Riverside there on Wall Street in the outpatient section. And the day it was scheduled, I went in. And from the moment I parked my car to the moment I got back in my car, probably wasn't more than 10 or 15 minutes.

Host: Wow.

Tom Souligne: Very check in, done. I was familiar and I don't think everybody's familiar with CAT scans. I was familiar because a former partner was a CT technologist. Okay. So, I was around them, and it's just a big machine, but absolutely non-intrusive, very simple, very quick procedure, and handled very well by the lady there and everything went very smooth.

Host: Yeah. I think that's the thing everyone always dreads is going in and getting the type of like scan or lab work done is because, "Oh, it's going to take forever."

Tom Souligne: It was so fast.

Host: Yeah. Not the case with this for sure. Can you talk about like what happened after the test?

Tom Souligne: When I got the results for the test, I believe they liked to see under a hundred. Because what it does, it basically-- and not that I'm a doctor-- the calcium buildup in your arteries, and mine was 1520.

Host: Wow.

Tom Souligne: Yeah. When my doctor got those results back, she called me right away. And I went in to see Dr. Williams and discussed the next steps and got set up with a cardiologist in an appointment with Dr. Win, and went through some stuff, EKG, all that. It showed some abnormalities, but nothing that was like blaring to them. So, we went to set up a stress, an EKG test. And during the stress test, my heart rate couldn't get up to a high enough level. Even on the incline on a treadmill, my resting heart rate is usually in the 50s, which is not good because I'm not an athlete. But doing the stress test, they wanted it to be over 130 and I never got over 130.

So, their readings didn't show anything jump out at them. But they said, "You really didn't get to where we wanted to be stress on your heart. So, next step was setting up the angiogram. Now, we're going to go ahead and just take a look and see." And I knew going in that if they saw blockages, they were going to go ahead and place stents that day.

I pretty much with the family history and a 1520 score knew that they were going to be placing stents that day. So, I went in and they did find some major blockages, one 99% and another at 90%, and they placed three stents in two separate arteries that day. And then, I had to go back a month later and get two more stents in two other arteries.

Host: Wow. Yeah. So, it sounds like they found something that they could at least fix and help you hopefully with that tiredness that you have.

Tom Souligne: It has helped dramatically with that. It has definitely helped my quality of life. I'm definitely not tired like I was.

Host: Yeah. So, why did you choose Riverside? You know, you said you're an area native. But why did you choose Riverside for your care?

Tom Souligne: I have always went to Riverside with my children. I have seven children and have always just chosen to go to Riverside. I've always enjoyed my quality of care there and the staff there are always really nice. So, I enjoy it.

Host: Yeah, we love to hear that. If there was one thing that you would say to recommend our Heart and Vascular team, or really your Primary Care, anybody for Riverside, like what would you say to recommend it?

Tom Souligne: It was just, from beginning to end, such a seamless procedure. Everybody was on the same page. And I think the computer systems they have now definitely helped that from the days of the past. But everybody knew what I was talking about when I talked to the next person. There wasn't any loss of translation between two doctors or nurses and doctors. And the nurses when I got the stents were incredible also.

Some people don't even stay overnight. I stayed overnight just due to the 99% blockage. I believe they want to keep an eye on it, but I was back to work in a physical job in three days. Don't be scared of the procedure. I mean, it's very non-invasive, I know it doesn't sound non-invasive but the recovery time is nothing.

Host: Yeah. Back to work in three days. Holy cow! It just really shows you that, with good care and watching out, that you can get back on your feet faster.

Tom Souligne: Oh, most definitely. Most definitely. The aftercare was incredible.

Host: Yeah. Well, that's great. Is there any advice that you would give our listeners about maybe getting a CT heart scan?

Tom Souligne: Even if you don't have a family history, get your CT heart scan. I am not a dramatic person. I am about as mellow and laid back as it gets, but it saved my life. I mean, it wasn't a question of if I was going to have a heart attack. They basically said that 99% blockage of main artery, it's when I was going to have a heart attack. And then, it would've depended on where I was when I had that heart attack. So, get it done, because it is a life changer

Host: For sure. Well, thank you Tom, so much for telling your story. And thank you listeners for tuning into the Well Within Reach podcast brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. For more information about heart services at Riverside, visit riversidehealthcare.org/heart.