Michael Sinnock thought it was heartburn. It was a gallstone attack, and a trip to the VA Medical Center in Memphis changed the week.

AUTHOR:Michael Sinnock 

Friday morning started with what I assumed was a bad case of acid reflux. Sharp pain in my stomach, the kind that sits under your ribs and does not move. I went to work anyway, because that is what I do. By midmorning I could not stand it any longer.

Before I drove to the VA Medical Center at the corner of Pauline and Jefferson, I almost talked myself out of it. There is an instinct most of us carry and mostly ignore, the one that tells you something is genuinely wrong rather than just uncomfortable. I have made enough serious mistakes in my life to have learned, later than I would like, to trust that instinct instead of talking over it. This time I listened.

What Happened Once I Walked In

The lobby had maybe five to eight people ahead of me. A triage nurse got to me within ten minutes. What happened next was the part I did not expect. A triage doctor working nearby overheard me describing the pain, the vomiting, and the sweating that came in waves, and named it on the spot as a probable gallstone attack. He told the nurse to take me straight back. No waiting room delay, no sitting with it.

Within a few hours I had been seen by internists, a surgeon, and several specialists. A CT scan with contrast and a full abdominal ultrasound confirmed I was carrying multiple gallstones, and my liver enzyme levels suggested I had likely just passed one, which explained the entire episode. The surgeons recommended removing the gallbladder and admitting me overnight in case another stone moved before they could operate. Because I had already passed the one causing the trouble, I did not qualify for emergency surgery that day, but they got me into the operating room Monday around midday. I was kept overnight for observation and released this morning.

Here is what, looking back, told me this was not ordinary heartburn:

The pain sat in one place instead of moving. It did not respond to anything I tried on my own. It came with vomiting and profuse sweating rather than just discomfort. It got worse instead of better across the morning. And it was different from any stomach trouble I had experienced before, which is usually the real signal worth listening to.

What I Actually Found at the VA This Week

The VA carries a reputation, deserved in plenty of documented cases, for slow care and inconsistent quality. I am not going to pretend that reputation comes from nowhere. But I can only report what happened to me, and this week it was fast, attentive, and thorough from the moment I walked through the door.

The building itself has been standing a long time and shows it. It is a little loud, a little worn in places, in need of the kind of investment older federal facilities often wait years for. What it is not short on is people. The staff I dealt with were exactly what you would hope for from Memphis, big personalities, direct, warm in a way that does not require softness to be genuine. They took care of me.

Michael Shane Sinnock has now seen the Department of Veterans Affairs from two very different sides. I spent years tending the grounds at Memphis National Cemetery, caring for where veterans are laid to rest. This week I was on the other end of that same department, in an emergency room, being cared for myself. Both experiences taught me something about what that agency is capable of when it is working the way it is supposed to.

I do not know what caused those stones, and it does not much matter now that one is gone and the rest are scheduled to follow. What I know is that I almost did not go in Friday morning, and that the version of me from years ago probably would not have. Growing older has taught me to trust the signal over the noise. This week that lesson likely spared me a much worse outcome.

If something in your body is telling you this is not normal, do not wait as long as I nearly did.

There is more where this came from at www.michaelsinnock.com, including the rest of the story about what service and being served both look like from the inside.

AUTHOR BIO:

About Michael Sinnock: Michael Sinnock is a U.S. Navy veteran and Office Automation Assistant with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Memphis District Office. A Memphis professional whose career spans military service, federal employment, and logistics management, he writes about public service, resilience, the curiosity that keeps life interesting, and the long, worthwhile work of becoming someone you are proud of. Explore more at www.michaelsinnock.com.