Thanksgiving will soon be here. It is a time when normally we would meet and spend time with family, and unfortunately, COVID is taking that away from a lot of people. Even though this whole year has been different, and Thanksgiving tomorrow may be different, that does not mean you can’t sit back and appreciate the 4 H’s in life: Home, Health, Happiness, and Hope.
Through all of this year, I still come to the same conclusion: There is no place like home. I hear it now more that I ever do, especially with many patients of mine being in the nursing home, or an assisted living. Home memories bring back times when we were young, and our kids were young. The happy times. And, just a place where you can relax, do what you want, and get away from everything else going on in the world. Nothing can replace Home!
Especially when our kids come back home to spend time with us!
Nothing like having fresh home made cookies, and having your kids wantto spend time with you again!
Pay the cost to keep ourselves healthy, or pay even more later when we try to get our health back. Invest in yourself early on, and the dividends are far more profitable. We feel better, we can do more, and will feel like we want to do more. I hear it everyday from patients who don’t have their health anymore.
Why do you think we work out every day? Is every day doing this fun? No, but I feel better when I do. Not every day is perfect. It never is. But the good days then are even better, and the days that would not have been good, turn out to be not so bad after all. Invest in yourself. What could be better than this? Everything you invest in yourself pays you dividends in the long run ( pun intended, for we do many long runs!) Work for what you have, including your health.
We can choose to be happy, or miserable. The choice is ours. We can also choose to do something about it as well. We are in the driver seat. Choose wisely! We have one life to live. Eventually this pandemic will be over. We have to have hope that there will be an end to this all. The sadness that comes from all of the people who are not surviving. We all have to hold one, and focus on the first 3 H’s by trusting in the 4th H.
I hear people everyday telling me how they can’t wait for this pandemic to end. I am right there with you. I don’t know if there will be a “normal” again, but there will be a new way of doing things. Can we learn from this? I HOPE SO. Can it teach us to appreciate things more than before? I HOPE SO!
Have a little faith. Spend times with the people, and pets in our lives. They are all right by our side through all of this. Dakota is always one to show love and always be by our side when we are having a tough day. Dakota never holds any grudges, never dwells on the bad days she may have. Every day is new adventure for her, and a time to look at the bright side of life. You know, we could really learn a lot from a dog! Focus on our home, work on our health, maintain our happiness, and know that hope still remains. Focus on the 4 H’s to get us through. Keep moving everybody! And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thankfully, we can still run with everything going on now. COVID is so rampant now that every day brings a new challenge. It gets tough getting up every day to go into work. The first thing I check is to see if anymore of my patients have died. There has never been such a helpless feeling that we have as physicians wondering who will get it next, and will they be the ones to survive or not. We need to go run or walk every day after the day ends just to try to clear our mind, and gear up for the next day.
Focus on the things you can do to make a difference. Protect yourself, and help protect others. And, help all the people in the medical field do their job, and help in their job by keeping the social distancing, and wearing a mask!
Keep focusing on these on a regular basis. Be positive, and keep your chin up. Times are tough for all of us.
Take the views in, and forget about all of the stress life is bringing. This is where running, and walking, helps so much. Get outside, keep your distance, and be as safe as possible.
People are not the only ones feeling the stress of things. Even our dog Dakota knows things are not the same. You can tell by the look on her face some days that she is also worried about us too! She is always there by our side, ready to give a hug or a kiss.
But even she needs to spend some time with her bear for comfort as well.
Some days I wonder how I get out of bed. It is always the same thing, just more volume, and intensity. What bad news is coming today? Who am I going to find out now has COVID? Are they going to make it? Do we have enough people left at the clinic to help take care of everybody else? Am I going to get COVID today? These are the daily struggles!
When the going gets tough, the tough get going! Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do! Put your head down, take a deep breath, and get going and do what you can to take care of people, just like we do everyday in the clinic!
It is easy to feel sorry for ourselves these days. But truly, quit saying “Why Me?” Turn it around, and say “Try Me!” Get ready to kick the door down and do what you can. We can all help each other. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. USE YOUR HEAD! Think about somebody else once, instead of just yourself. I have older patients who many of them have said when they were diagnosed with COVID, but not sick enough to be in the hospital, “I might as well go home and get ready to die!” Nobody should have to say this, or feel this. We all have a life, and want to keep living it. Be mindful of others, and put yourself in their shoes…not only the shoes of the patients who get COVID, but the shoes of all of us that are doing everything we can to help take care of them too. When we lose patients to this, they are friends, or family. It takes a huge mental toll on us too! The disappointment of losing them is getting incredibly tough to keep dealing with. Why? Because we care! We went into medicine because we care! We went into medicine to help people, and when you can’t, there is nothing more frustrating! I again plea with everybody: work with us, not against us! Help us help you! Wear a mask! Think of others, and the benefit you give to them. Be somebody who cares! Take care of others, and take care of yourself…keep moving everybody…safely!
With COVID going strong, we need to appreciate the days we have even more than ever. At the end of this week, I have now lost 10 patients to COVID–3 this week! 2 of them were gone in a couple of days! Live each day like there may not be a tomorrow. We are not guaranteed this by any means. We can’t live in fear, but we have to use our heads. Don’t take things for granted, and remember and appreciate the things we do have, not what we don’t have. Spend time with friends, like the above picture shows, but you can be smart about it too.
These two pictures are from our run club. The first one this Summer when we were supporting some of our friends when they did their first marathon. It was a virtual marathon, so they were basically running by themselves, with us riding by, or pedaling by to cheer them on. When we are outside we try to keep our space, and limit the actual time we may be together, like 30 seconds to take a picture! If it were not for these friends, this pandemic would be even tougher to deal with. We are like family!
This is where the sunsets come into play for me too. I am by myself, getting lost in nature, and just taking in all of the colors and beauty. Each one is different. It is my wind down time at the end of the day. Lately, it has been tougher to get to see with them coming sooner, and now with Daylight Savings last weekend, there is no way I can get there during the week now. I have Thursday afternoons off, so I have time then, and the weekends. I will still take them in then, but the rest of the days I will still be at clinic working.
Think about this for a minute. Let the meaning really sink in. By appreciating somebody else, and telling them, we not only make them feel good, but it obviously is a benefit to ourselves as well because they were helping us to begin with. Show that appreciation to others as well. And, don’t forget to appreciate those in our own households as well.
Dakota is such a good dog. She just turned one in August. She is always excited to see us, and ready to give hugs and kisses anytime, any day. She loves to go for runs/walks too. Many times she gets to go in the morning and in the evening.
And, I am so lucky to have Sarah in my life. I have no clue what I would do without her! I can only hope I will not have to find out for a long time! I appreciate her more than she knows! And so does Dakota!
So go out to the Lake and watch a sunset, or a sunrise. You won’t regret it! Let your mind go, and your problems as well. Just forget everything else going on right now. And get outside while you can! We got a break from Winter last month, don’t blow it! Take advantage of it for as long as we are going to be lucky enough, and blessed enough to have it. Don’t waste it. Anything that can wait doing inside can wait. You will have all Winter to work on those things. And remember…
Continue to keep reading this slide until it sinks in! With everything going on now, nothing can be taken for granted. Don’t waste anything. Remember to focus on what is truly important, and necessary. Sometimes we think things are important, but they are really not. Keep your perspective on what is TRULY important in your life. Strive to Survive! Keep moving everybody!
I have always said: Lead by Example! COVID numbers are increasing continuously. We are seeing patients with this daily! Yes, many people who get it recover without any long term ramifications. But, many do not. I even had a patient this week who has been off for the last month from work because he cannot get over the fatigue from COVID. He is angry and frustrated. He, like many, did not think initially this was a big deal…until he got it. I have been talking about wearing months for months. I have been on the Watertown Task Force for COVID, and have spoke many times. I have been criticized, sworn at, told to my face that I don’t know what I am talking about. That won’t stop me from doing what I need to do. I will keep talking about wearing masks until this is over. There is a new promotion going on now: #MaskUpWatertown. Check it out on Facebook. It has been in the news, radio, newspaper. It is a means of promoting the use of masks with the high numbers of cases we are having now.
Sarah and I went running with our run group Saturday morning for Halloween. Our costumes were shown above. You guessed it, we went as doctors! After all, we are doctors. We had all our gear on. We did not have to have a mask on running outside. We kept our social distance. We did it to prove a point. It can be done. It is not that difficult. You can also have fun with it.
Be creative. We can wears masks for Halloween, why can’t we wear one otherwise? Protect someone else. Have someone protect you. It is a 2 way street. The number of cases of people dying from COVID here in Watertown is climbing as well. You ask those people’s families how they feel. Is wearing a mask a guarantee that you won’t get COVID, or that you won’t give it to someone else? NO! When is anything in life a guarantee. Will it help? YES! Be like the Nike commercial: JUST DO IT! If we spent as much effort to wear a mask as we do complaining about it, it would not be an issue. I have heard so many excuses already to not wear one. But that is all it is: An excuse! Will I probably have some people complain about what I am writing here today? Absolutely! Do I care? NOT ONE BIT!!!!
We wear masks all day, every day at the clinic. We are seeing COVID everyday! Do I like wearing a mask? HELL NO! But I do it! By the time this is all done, I will have to keep wearing a mask just to hide the permanent marks being left in my face by our N95 masks! #MASKUPWATERTOWN! Just do it! Do it for those around you! Do it because you care about other people. If anything could help with reducing the number of people with COVID, why would you not do it? Every day! If you can’t keep social distancing, wear a mask! If you are shopping, wear a mask! If you are around a large group, WEAR A MASK! Our whole philosophy with this blog revolves around the concept of trying to Strive to Survive! JUST DO IT!! And, keep moving everybody…it truly helps deal with all of the insanity going on currently! Take care of yourself, but help take care of others also!
Last week I wrote about taking the time to appreciate things, and looking at things around us. My main pictures were sunsets when it was calm. When things are calm, and steady, things are easy. But what about when it starts getting a little more turbulent in our lives? What about the storms we encounter, and some even on a daily basis? How do we deal with things when the going gets tough? What we do depends on what we look for. You may have to dig a little further into your own self to decide what this may be, and look for the good in things yet. You can still see some amazing things during the turbulent times as well.
Things could always be worse, right? We have to keep telling ourselves it will get better. Stay strong, stay focused, and sometimes it may feel like we are just hanging on. But the above says it all! Look beyond. Think of how things are when that storm, or “turbulence” is over. How much better do we feel when we “weather the storm”?
Stand tall! Yes, just like a strong wind, you wonder how you can stand up to it all and deal with it. There is where exercise comes into play for me. It is my escape. My time for me. My time to forget everything else around me that is going on. This Summer really opened up my eyes when I would go for my walks along the Lake. It was my time to relax, and I was forgetting everything else. I looked at the sun setting like I had never seen before. And you know what? It truly was like I was seeing it for the first time! It has been right in front of me for years, and I just never paid attention to it. Don’t let life pass us by. The years go by fast. Appreciate each day like it could be our last, because you know what? It could be!
I absolutely love going out and taking these pictures. I am coming up with different ways to capture the moment. Some of these times are indescribable as to the things that go through my mind when I just “let it go and take it all in”! Every sunset is different. I now am seeing the changes when the wind picks up, and the waves are crashing, that each one of these adds a different dimension to the moment. Yes, it is turbulent. Yes it is hard to always stand tall during these times. But you have to look beyond…look deeper into the moment in order to help get through it.
No truer words have been said! Calm yourself! Easier said than done. Find out for you what it is that is going to help calm you. Go walk, get active, blow off some steam. Take the surroundings in, and pay attention. You will see things you truly have never seen before. Start living!
Let the waves roll on by! Get past those tough times. Look beyond. Strive to take life in for what it is…a gift. Never take your life for granted. For all the tough times, there are many more good times. And, the tough times make the good times even better. Keep moving everybody!
