A full, active life

Greg Woods has dedicated his career to caring for others. The recently retired nurse managed UC Davis Health’s internal medicine and specialty clinics, overseeing everything from infectious disease care to kidney care. Outside of work, he stays just as active, fishing, golfing, and refereeing for high school football, basketball, and lacrosse.

“I feel like UC Davis is like a small town,” Greg says. “You get to know everybody, whether they’re a cook or a doctor or a nurse. That’s what I like about it.”

Greg has trusted UC Davis Health with his care for more than 13 years, including two knee replacements that restored the active lifestyle he loves. Then one ordinary night, he needed that care more than ever.

Shortness of breath on the stairs

One evening after work, Greg took his usual route to the parking lot, which was just up a single flight of stairs. At the top, he felt unexpectedly short of breath. And the next day, the same thing happened.

“My Spidey senses kind of went up,” Greg says. As a nurse, he knew shortness of breath could be nothing, or it could be something serious. He wasn’t willing to guess.

Greg made an appointment with his primary care physician, Dr. Katerina Christiansen, the next morning. She ordered a chest X-ray and bloodwork, then added one more test as a precaution, a D-dimer, which checks for signs of blood clotting.

The test that changed everything

That evening, Greg’s results started coming in through the MyUCDavisHealth patient app. The D-dimer was the one that stopped him cold.

“The upper end of normal is like 500, and I was at like 1500,” Greg says. “I said, oh wow, I have a clot.”

He and his wife drove straight to the UC Davis Medical Center emergency department. A CT scan of his chest and an ultrasound of his leg confirmed what Greg had been concerned about. A blood clot in his right leg had traveled to his lungs, where it had multiplied into several more.

Meet Greg’s primary care physician, Dr. Katerina Christiansen

Greg was admitted to the medical center, where he spent the next few days under close care. Looking back, he is especially thankful for his doctor’s decision to order that last test as a precaution.

“Had my primary care doctor not thought to order that D-dimer, we may not have found those clots,” Greg says. “Who knows what would have happened, because I was definitely symptomatic.”

Fast action, the right call

Once the clots were identified, Greg’s care team moved quickly. He was started on blood thinners to break up the clots and prevent new ones from forming, a treatment he continues today under the guidance of hematology-oncology specialist Dr. Adam Giermasz.

If the two knee replacements with Dr. Mauro Giordani showed Greg what planned, deliberate care and expertise looks like at UC Davis Health, the unrelated blood clots showed him something else — that same high level of care is delivered just as fully when there’s no time to spare.

Between the knees and the clots, Greg has seen UC Davis Health’s care from nearly every angle.

“I feel like the clots and my doctor ordering the right lab tests may have saved my life.”—Greg, patient

Back on solid ground

Recovery from the knee replacements was, in Greg’s words, night and day. Before surgery, sitting through a two-hour movie left him stiff and in pain, barely able to stand by time the credits rolled. Thanks to that procedure, he gets up and walks out like nothing ever happened.

The blood clots required a different kind of recovery — not physical therapy, but vigilance. Greg now takes lifelong blood thinners and checks in regularly with his care team, a daily reminder of just how close things came.

“I feel like the clots and my doctor ordering the right lab tests may have saved my life,” Greg says.

Living fully every single day

Today, Greg is back to everything he loves, fishing with his son, golfing, and refereeing Friday night football games. He and his wife go to the movies again, something he once thought he’d never do comfortably.

He still sees Dr. Giordani, his orthopedic surgeon, around campus and gives him a hug every time they cross paths.

Dr. Christiansen has earned the same kind of gratitude. “I gave her a big hug and said thank you,” Greg says of his follow-up visit with her. “Thank you for ordering that test. Maybe you saved my life. I’m very, very thankful to have you as my physician.”

For Greg, both chapters of his health journey, the knees and the clots, point to the same truth about the support he’s trusted for over a decade.

“I know our care is fantastic,” he says, “and I trust my care, and my family’s care, with UC Davis Health.”