Yesterday I went to go see one of my patients as she had a celebration for her 90th Birthday. I have helped take care of Grace since I came to Watertown in 1994. One thing for sure, when you are a Family Physician, you truly are taking care of the family. You do what you can to help your patients get through the bad times, and good times, the struggles, and the joys. Everybody experiences up and downs, and we all have issues that can come up with our health. The hope is that we can do something about those issues when they come up. One day, we are all going to leave this world, but we want to enjoy as much of our life, and our family, for as long as we can.
As a Family Physician, we are helping at the core of our patients. We may not be able to take care of, and solve everything, but what we can’t do, we need to know where we are going to steer our patients. We try to do the best, and most, we possibly can to take care of them.
For many years now, Kelsey and I having been having our Strive to Survive wellness program to help our patients. We continue to keep promoting a healthy diet, and encourage exercise, to help our patients help themselves as much as possible. Keeping on task is always a struggle, because during the day, some patients may need more time that what any of us thought. Things come up. We go with the flow. Sometimes big things come up, and serious things come up, and you do what you have to do to take care of that patient. As a physician, we may start off with a schedule for the day, but very seldom does it just flow without any problems. That is just how it goes!
As much as I try to stay on time during the day, it just does not always happen. Things happen! As a patient, you just need to hope I don’t need to spend a lot of time with you that day. The more time I need to spend, the bigger the issue, or the more serious the problem may be. But when you deal with serious issues all day, every day, there are just those times when you need to have some fun too. Laughter, after all , can be the best medicine.
Some times you may just need to cut loose and hula! Whether at the clinic Christmas party, or being involved in a hula hoop contest at an Assisted Living! Have fun and laugh! Personally, I am a Disney fan, and in particular, Mickey Mouse!
Laughing can be a great way to relax, and take control of your own health! Always remember this! This should be just as important a way of taking care of yourself, as does watching your diet, and exercise!
As a Primary Care…Family…Physician, our roles are enormous. We cover a large spectrum of care involved with our patients. We help coordinate care as well. Bottom line, we are going to do what needs to be done to help our patients. Nothing will change on this over time. In my career, I have taken care of patients for many years, and some, like Grace, for as long as I have been a physician! They become like family as well. After all these years, we know what is important in our patients lives, and the struggles they have to deal with as well. It is important for us to be there when they need us! And that goes for celebrations of good things as well!
So, once again, Happy Birthday Grace! You have had a great 90 years, and I hope you get to experience many more to come! I will be there for you, just like my other patients. I am your Family Physician, and we are vital to families! I just ask my patients to help meet me half way, and do what they can to help themselves! Eat right, exercise regularly, and learn to laugh!!! Keep mopving everybody!
It was a busy weekend for us! We went out to Deadwood on Wednesday for our annual SD Family Physician conference. Sarah was sworn in on Friday night and will now be the president of the SD Academy of Family Physicians! Congratulations Sarah!
She was sworn in on Friday night by the National Academy of Family Physicians President Dr. Gary LeRoy! He came from Ohio to join our conference, and to officially swear her into office. What a great conference!
She and I spent Thursday afternoon teaching other Family Physicians on Diabetes.
It is a great conference where we all can learn new things, and learn from each other as well. That will be one of the job responsibilities of the president; helping with ideas for topics for continuing education for the 350 Family Physicians of the state. She will get to do some traveling as well to national conferences, including Kansas City, Chicago, and Washington DC. I plan on going with her on some of these! We also had fun spending time with friends, classmates from med school, and Carletta Hauck, our Executive Director for the SDAFP!
Carletta’s daughter Carissa also came. It was great getting to see her again! She was helping Carletta with the conference, along with Steve, and Noah. It was a family effort! Each afternoon we had between 1-2 hours out of the whole day to do something else. So, of course, we went running!
Here I go by the sign Moon Mountain! The route by the hotel is up in the mountains. We would go 4 miles, with the first mile up, the second mile down, and then back. Those hills are incredibly tough.
Here Sarah is leading the way on the first mile going up! We just had to keep telling ourselves that once we got done with the first mile, it would be downhill for the next. Then repeat! That 3rd mile, going back up again, was a killer. At least the 4th mile was back down again!
The hills did not seem too bad when you had a least a great view. All of the pine trees, the pine tree smell, and even saw a few deer! It was enough of a break to go back at it again for the evening sessions!
Sarah will do a great job of being President, and will lead by example. She had the audience laughing with her speech! We have been a big part of this academy since medical school! Family Medicine is what we do, and we always need to keep learning. As she said in her speech, it will be just like when I was president over 15 years ago. The academy just got a 2 for 1 deal. You vote in one, and you get the benefit of having both of us. Good job Sarah! Congratulations! You will do great! Keep moving everybody!
Man’s best friend. They are always there for us. They want to play, have attention, regardless of how their day has been. Tail always wagging, ready to get going on the new adventure, or just glad to see you. I have had a dog now for over 25 years. It is so incredibly hard when we have to say goodbye to one of them, but all of the times we have had with them more than makes up for the sadness of saying goodbye.
Here is our daughter Megan playing with her dog , Dobby, a lab/pointer mix, 3 years old, and Dakota, our Golden Retriever puppy, now 5 months old. They keep each other company during the day, and then want all of our attention at night. They get along well with each other, and I think they both would feel lost if they did not have the other one around during the day either.
This is a good summary of just what we can, and have learned, from having a dog. Appreciate them. They make great training partners, friends, and family members…They can feel the love that comes from this family as well. And, they know they are a part of this family!
The loyalty they show, and unending love is something you would not understand unless you have, or have had, a dog. They are always ready to go for a walk, or a run. Something to get moving. They are great for helping to get you moving yourself, and to do some exercise. They do not care what the weather is outside. They just want to go! With all of the kids at least grown up and out of the house, it is like taking care of another child. They at least don’t talk back all of the time!
They want your attention, and will be very loyal to you. Take advantage of their unending love!
This one has definitely taken our hearts. She is already a very special dog. I only see this getting even better as she gets bigger. Many adventures, walks, and runs to look forward too!
Here is to you Dakota! She helps keep us moving, and enjoying life. If you have a dog, you know what I mean. If you don’t have a dog, what are you waiting for? Keep moving everybody!
The Winter days are cold, windy, and can get long, especially if you try to keep fighting through it by yourself. Your mind starts playing games with you, and you starting coming up with excuses to do anything except go exercise, and this whether it is outside, or inside. This makes Winters feel really long.
So what do you do to try and get through these long Winter blues? Who can you rely on? What can you rely on? First, there is no question, if you are going to exercise outside, whether running or walking, you have to have the right gear to wear. This not only from a comfort standpoint, but a safety standpoint. Between the long hours of darkness, and what the cold can do, safety needs to come first.
Everything needs to be covered, and you not only have to see where you are going, you need to be seen as well. I touched on this in some of the last posts. This weekend in particular is especially important when it comes to the cold, and the dangers of the wind chill as well. Sometimes you may have the right gear, but it is still safer working out inside. There are options with this as well.
I will go on the treadmill if there are really no other choices. But for me, this just gets really boring. I prefer something different then, and that can include the elliptical, or the stationary bike. Music, and/or having the TV on helps immensely!
Working out with weights, or doing resistance exercises in general is also a good alternative. For me, I have a corner of my garage set up for this. That is also a heater up in the top portion of the picture as well, so it really is nice working out in the garage. Otherwise, this is where places like the Wellness Center, or other gyms, can come into play as well. If nothing else, just to have some variety in the choices of what you can use. But if I have my choice, I still prefer to be outside!
It really helps when the city plows out certain sections of the trail. For a lot of our runs, we go to the Zoo and park, and then go out on the trail from there. This way, we are off traffic, and can be much safer in general. This is also a good time to be out with friends!
I have lost count of how many runs I have been on, Winter or Summer, with Tom! In Watertown, he has been, and still is, one of my prime training partners. Wear the right equipment, no excuses, and just get your butt out the door! Our run club is also good for this as well.
When you are out in a group, it is much easier to get motivated to show up. You are all there for the same reason. To get outside and get some exercise. We all keep each other going, and pushing each other. Sometimes I wonder if it really is about running, or just showing up to spend time with friends! I am not sure it really matters at this point. Spending time together is definitely a motivating point.
As Jill shows here, there is always time to wave and smile. Bring it on Jill! Show us how it is done! Each week brings new adventures, new challenges, and new weather conditions to deal with. What else does it bring?
Of course! Memories! So when you put all of this together, this is how you get motivated. You have to figure this out for you: what is it gonna take to get you motivated? What are your goals? Are you trying to achieve them yourself? The road to success is always lonelier by yourself. You need to find somebody to help you, push you, make you accountable…and before all is said and done, somebody to help make memories with!
Are you really motivated? Is it just all talk and no action? As I stated last week, Imagine! Believe! Achieve! Repeat! Repeat! Repeat! Motivation starts within, but can definitely be helped by many other factors, and many other people! Keep moving everybody!
2019 Brought a lot of changes for me, as I am sure it did for you too. For me, it brought me back to the reality that I am human. It also took away from me something that has been a part of my life for many decades–running! It has been a battle trying to get back to what is part of me, but it is slowly coming. A friend of ours, Jill, is trying to get a bunch of us together to make a vision board for this year. I have to admit, I had to do some checking on this to even see what a vision board is! It basically comes down to what do you want to see out of your life for this year. It is a way of reflecting on your goals, and attempting to come up with ways for us as individuals to figure out what we want out of our lives. What is a good life? What makes life valuable or worth living? Before you are gone in this life, what is it you would hope to have accomplished? What activity or hobbies do you already do, but want to get better at? What are your relationship goals? The list could go on and on. For me, it will start with the main focus: running!
My life revolved around running! I spent time with my family running. Some of my closest friends I have met running. I tell my patients every day they have to work on their diet and activity, and I don’t just tell them, I was living by example. When this was taken away from me for awhile, I admit, I felt lost. I was depressed for awhile. My body could not do it, and then it messed with my mind, which only made it worse. I was trying to figure out my purpose in life. My kidney doctor basically told me I donated my right kidney, but nobody else got to receive the benefit of having it. Wow! I spend my life taking care of other people. This point hit hard. It is one thing to lose my kidney, but why couldn’t somebody else at least have gotten it instead? I struggled with this for awhile, and still do, but am coming more to grips with this. My vision board will take off from this picture!
It starts right here with all of us. If we can’t believe in ourselves, we are not going to get very far. If we don’t care for ourselves, the same thing, we won’t get very far. In order to believe in something, you have to believe you can do it. I had to convince myself that I could run again.
You need to keep digging, and keep fighting, to find the courage within yourself. Never give up. Keep saying “I will try again tomorrow”. Do not give up on yourself. There may be obstacles in the way, and setbacks, but you keep fighting. I have said this on my blog many times that there will be good days and bad days. Keep moving! Keep trying!
I was looking back at some of my running pictures, and this one caught my eye. For me, it showed how I had the grit and determination to push it, to keep trying, to keep running forward. I will be looking at this picture many times this coming year. I had that drive and determination once, and I can have it again! The goals may be different. It may not be about times for awhile, but more so about the fact that I can do what I once did. Time is, after all, only time. How many people have every run a marathon, or even a half marathon, ever? Perspective!
Repeat! Repeat! Repeat! Daily!
One thing for sure, I, and you, do not have to do this alone. We have friends and family for support. For me, those running friends are like family!
They were all running for me, and supporting me when I was in the hospital. Laying in the hospital gave me time to figure out the reality of all of this. My health was no longer going to be the same. My consecutive exercise streak came to a halt. Almost 12 years without missing a day! It is pretty safe to say, I was at the lowest point in my life that I could remember. Looking at this picture when I was laying there helped me get through it. No words can ever express how much this helped me!
Can it really be said any better than this? I want to be remembered as somebody that was there for somebody else when they needed help as well. We never know when that time may come. I guess this also what is involved with being a doctor as well. I do, or try to do, this every day. This is something I will be working on forever. I have to keep reminding myself to do this as well. But the next line is what will be my ultimate goal, not only for this year, but forever!
We are all unique. We all have our own special traits, quirks, habits, annoyances, attributes, etc. We all can work on improving ourselves, but we can start by helping to make somebody else feel like somebody–somebody special! Friends and family!
And especially to Sarah! She has been beside me through this whole roller coaster. She often times takes the brunt of things as well. When you struggle, your spouse puts up with a lot as well. Hang with me! I may need to keep being reminded. All of these pictures shown here will be on my vision board to keep reminding myself as well. Maybe reviewing them several hundred, to several thousand times, will help something sink in more. I signed up for my first half marathon in April this year. It will be my first in over a year, and the first since I have been sick. It is time to start living again. It was fine being a spectator for awhile, but now, enough is enough. I want to be back on the running end of things. I want to be me! Running is part of me. It is me! Imagine! Believe! Achieve! Keep moving everybody!
