SUPER HEROES AMONG US
( continued from page 13 ) she found a stellar program in Utah and moved to Salt Lake City for her PharmD in clinical toxicology , and then saw a job opening here in Louisville and took it . Nancy took over the training at our Poison Control Center and formalized it with new standards and ongoing education . She raised our profile and over her years there , cemented our reputation for excellence in managing the work of immediate , 24 / 7 , accurate advice for all who have accidental exposure to toxic substances . Nationally , all poison control centers have the same number : 1-800-222-1222 , and we can find people who speak 150 languages across the land . The professional staff always follow up after a call to make sure the person is all right and to answer further questions .
She has taught pharmacy classes here to medical students and pharmacy students . She has noted that the EMR , a thorn in the side of doctors , is a rose without peer for pharmacists : no more handwriting issues , no more made-up abbreviations , and the people who know best can design boxes for doctors et al . to check , thereby preventing errors at the start . She described Louisville as way more doctor-centric than Detroit , with clinical pharmacists much less a part of the hospital rounding teams , except for oncology and pediatric units .
Nancy met her husband Jim McGee , a rock n ’ roll drummer turned CPA , 18 years ago at Joe ’ s Older Than Dirt in Lyndon . She ’ d gone out with some girlfriends and was about to leave when he walked through the door . They had instant chemistry - it was joyful and exciting , and she gave him her number - but he didn ’ t call . Finally , after three days of fretting , she realized she ’ d given him her old cell number out of sheer habit . When she called him , he answered with “ Thank God it ’ s you !” He ’ d thought he ’ d been punked but could not believe he ’ d misjudged her so . Things went swimmingly from there .
Eventually , Nancy made her way to the Family Health Center in Portland and set about improving all the office sort of pharmacy staffing and standards . Over her nine years there , Nancy and her
14 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Jazzercise teacher Martha Brown poses with quilt made by Nancy Matyunas .
staff did all the preauthorization paperwork for the doctors . ( Anyone out there who wants to reward PCPs , here is your blueprint for making them shriek with joy .) Her staff grew skilled at guessing the buzzwords while screaming out loud , just like docs do .
In retirement , Nancy has kept doing everything she always did , only more so . She volunteers with LouVax Mobile at least weekly , often more . She has played two notes in the bell choir at St . Andrew ’ s Episcopal for many years , and also works with Days for Girls , a group who makes and sends reusable menstrual products for girls and women . She works for the food pantry at both Church of the Advent and St . Andrew ’ s .
Jim and Nancy are deeply into Halloween , and they design and she sews costumes for various related shenanigans . She plays bass guitar in his band - she says her guitar motto is , “ Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly .” They hang out at the Bonnycastle Club , where he ’ s belonged for years .
They hike and bike and love ballroom dancing and swing dancing .
And of course , there ’ s Jazzercise , where she has been a faithful member since 1988 , for many years now in Martha Brown ’ s class headquartered at the MidCity Mall . She made Martha a beautiful quilt from all the various T-shirts awarded for special challenges and the like - it ’ s the first thing we see when we walk into class , and she entered it into the State Fair ( pictured here with Martha ).
She has made baby quilts and other memorial quilts ; Nancy has an artistic eye and the curiosity to work with new materials and crafts . She says the pandemic did intensify the cutthroat competition that she and Jim have with the daily crossword puzzle . She also got way into the Great British Baking Show . Organizing the table space for both sewing projects and jigsaw puzzles required a lot of planning .
In company with most of us , her old neuroses “ got amplified ” and her new ones narrowed her circle . Now we are more suspicious of people , we decided , for COVID-19 reasons we are much more avoidant and cautious overall .
Her prediction is that we will be living with the fear of COVID-19 for years : too much of the world remains unvaccinated , and new variants could crush us all . But so far , the people in lab coats have protected us to their utmost : if only , she says , all the unvaccinated folks would appreciate this fully , and show up at our LouVax , to help save the world .
Dr . Barry is an internist and Associate Professor of Medicine ( Gratis Faculty ) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine , currently retired and mulling her next moves .