Dr. Rechter has been my primary care doctor for decades, and has done so much for me that it's difficult to choose one story. However, since this is fairly recent, it comes to mind.
My husband and I moved off Long Island (where we lived and Dr. Rechter practices) about six years ago. We now live in Wappingers Falls, a town in the Hudson Valley. I never once considered finding a new primary care doctor. Dr. Rechter is well worth the travel time!
About three years ago, I was diagnosed with a fairly large brain tumor. Because it was benign and didn't seem to be causing serious problems, a neurosurgeon felt that we should just wait and see. About a year and a half later, one morning I was tying my shoelace when suddenly I experienced the feeling of electricity running up and down my foot. It only lasted for 15 seconds or so, but I had never felt anything like that before and mentioned it to my husband. We both hoped it was a "one off," but within a half hour, a got a second one. This time the feeling went from my foot all the way up my leg and I couldn't stand. I was quite scared. I called my neurosurgeon's office immediately and explained what had happened. The person who answered the phone said that somebody would get back to me soon. (That never happened, by the way). But I wasn't about to wait.
So, I called Dr. Rechter's office. She was with a patient, but when I explained the issue to the person at the front desk. Dr. Rechter immediately got on the phone with me. She asked me a few questions and then said to go immediately to an emergency room.
Unfortunately, that didn't work out well. But during those 5 hours that I was waiting to be seen, Dr. Rechter called me twice to see how I was doing. She told me that I should make a fuss and demand to be seen. I took her advice. When they finally took me in, I was in terrible pain and the entire right side of my body was experiencing what I later found out were called focal seizures.
I was seen by two neurologists who immediately put me on an IV and administered meds that temporarily stopped the seizures, but a week later it was decided that surgery was necessary. I spent another week in the hospital after the surgery, and then was sent to an acute rehab facility where I had both physical and occupational therapy. I was there for two weeks as I didn't have use of my right side and thus couldn't walk or write. The most frightening part was that I needed cognitive therapy. Luckily for me, these therapies worked and, aside from some permanent damage to my right foot and calf, I've recovered well.
I was thrilled to go home, but as the days passed, I started noticing that I had less and less of an appetite. I also began to feel very nauseous. Constantly. The only relief I got was trying to sleep. I had an appointment to see my new neurologist, but not for a month.
So, I called Dr. Rechter. We talked everything through, and she asked me about the meds that I had been on in the hospital and that I was still on. She asked when I had last had blood work done. I hadn't at all for the two weeks I was in the rehab hospital and knew that my blood hadn't been taken within the last few days in the hospital where I had my surgery. This didn't sit well with Dr. Rechter.
She told me to choose a lab that was close to my home and sent them a prescription for certain types of blood work. When she received the results, she immediately called me, saying that I seemed to have an extremely high amount of both anti-seizure meds I was on and that one, in particular, could produce nausea as a side effect. She told me to call my neurologist's office (this is the neurologist that I hadn't yet met) and speak to somebody there: p.a., nurse practitioner, the doctor himself, anybody who could help me. I did this. I had a talk with a nurse practitioner, explained my situation and the results of the blood work that Dr. Rechter ordered. She told me that that amount in my bloodstream was over three times the necessary dosage, and, considering my low weight (105 lbs), even more extreme than that. She told me to cut my dosage in half, and that's when my recovery began.
So, while my surgery was successful and my rehab was successful, the person who "saved" me was Dr. Rechter. She was on Long Island; I was two hours away. But she cared enough to get involved. I don't know what I would have done without her. It seems obvious in retrospect that between the two hospitals, somebody might have thought about the drugs I would be taking when I went home. But that didn't happen. Dr. Rechter spared me from additional weeks of miserable nausea and weight loss.
And this is just one example. She is simply the best.
