Things are readjusting this past week. Taking the time to realize what is most important. Christmas is coming up, and we will have some time with the kids and grandkids. Next weekend we will have just the grandkids. We are getting all ready for them! Ready for some snuggles and baby giggles! We are trying to get the house ready for everything. I think the Christmas shopping is done. Getting ready to make some more memories.
Sarah got the tree up and is ready to have presents put under it. It will be interesting if we can keep the grandkids away from them yet next weekend or not! Ready for new adventures.
The different Santas are up. I hope to watch some old Christmas animated movies next weekend. I always loved them as a kid. It was nice to watch them with our kids, now we get to watch them with our grandkids. Many of them never get old! It brings memories back to when I was a kid…
The stockings are hung up by the fireplace but won’t put anything in the until Christmas. Christmas season helps take my mind off all the other issues that have been going on recently. Can’t wait to see the smiles on the grandkids when it is Christmas and time to open presents. I am sure next week I will have lots of pictures of them “pre-Christmas”–that is what Grandpa’s are supposed to do, right? Sarah has been a huge help lately…I truly am lucky. Thank you, Sarah! Let’s have fun next weekend, and over Christmas time as well when everyone is here. Keep moving everybody…do something…even if it is not what you are used to doing…do something! I am finding out it is different right now but not doing anything would just be an excuse. I just have to find alternatives that I can do…and I am!
Well, I am at least starting to move on with things. Sarah and I are recovered from Covid, but not the ramifications of covid–at least for me. Covid, because of the inflammatory response it creates, increases the risk of developing blood clots. It increases it even more with somebody who has already had blood clots (back in 2019), and in anybody over the age of 60. I guess I hit the trifecta! That is what happened to me. I developed a blood clot in my left leg (right leg last time), obstructed below the knee, and partially obstructed up to the groin. With blood clots, small fragments can break off and go the lung, called a PE (Pulmonary embolus). We did not do a CT of my chest because we need to use contrast, and I lost majority of my right kidney with the last blood clot, so I have to be careful. I had been having some shortness of breath, my heart rate was up when I went to the ER, and my oxygen level was dropping, and they had to start oxygen. After conversations with a vascular surgeon in SF, he said there was no reason to get a CT. We just assume I had a PE as well. Usually, we want to know if a patient does or does not have a PE because the length of being on blood thinners for a clot in your leg can be 3-6 months, and for a PE 6-12 months. The vascular surgeon says it does not matter for me. This is my second time having a clot, and now I am on lifelong blood thinners…and all the potential bleeding risks that go along with this. I guess I should just shut up…I am still here. But I won’t lie–I was pissed! I try to do things in my life to help keep me healthy, and promote it as well, and then something comes along to change all of it, and that something you have absolutely no control over.
Yep! I am usually the one on the other side telling somebody else this. Now I have to keep telling myself this as well. I have not stopped my exercise streak though. But, I can only do upper body things. No running–for minimum of 3 months. No leg workouts for months. No biking for months. Hopefully by next month I can get out and do some walking–up to 20 minutes. I am going to drive myself nuts–and Sarah too. At least she is supportive. She does not care about the exercise aspect but just wants me around so I can actually enjoy retirement coming up.
So now I get to work with dumbbells! A dumbbell doing dumbbells! What a deal! At least I am moving. I also got a new piece of equipment, that later I could also use for my legs, but right now I am using for my arms.
At least this has helped maintain some sanity by being able to do something else. Otherwise not running would tip me over the edge. I can’t change what happened. I can’t change, at least just yet, being done being mad about it. I will get there. I am still here to talk about it. It is a lesson we all will come to deal with at some point in our lives. We will have something come up that we do not have any control over. Either learn to control things despite it or let it control you. I tell myself this multiple times a day. I am truly trying to convince myself of this as well.
No question Sarah has helped me immensely during these last few weeks. That is why the picture with her is first. But Tom and Sue have been sending texts, and calling, and brought over a meal one day. Huge Thank you to them as well! One day again Tom I will be running with you again, as well as the rest of our Watertown Area Run Club!
Great way to end this blog for this week. I need to keep reminding myself of this. Everyone, we all have challenges, and we need to keep our heads held high. “Don’t worry if you’re not where you want to be yet. Great things take time!” Keep moving everybody!
Well, it was not quite the Thanksgiving I was planning on having…what we were planning on having. Sarah and I found out we tested positive for covid, so all the plans of having 16 people over for Thanksgiving came to a screeching halt. Now it was Sarah and I to take on a 20# turkey! We saved a bunch to give to our daughter Megan, and son-in-law Dan. At least they got to eat some of it too. It was not what was planned. It also goes much deeper than just Covid for me, unfortunately. Another life changing health issue. I am not quite ready to talk about it yet. I am trying to come to grips with it all and will see by the next week or two to explain more I am trying to wrap my head around it all as well. I have just spent the last several days doing nothing but thinking. Amazing the stuff that will go through your head.
I will start off being thankful for getting my appetite back. Turkey and all of the stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, pumpkin pie…one of my favorite meals. I have managed to figure out how to do some exercise through this all and will be continuing this way for months. I am not one to just sit back and watch. I have said many times and will continue to say–“I hate being on the other side of the stethoscope!” What is a current saying, and song: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” OK. I have also mentioned the last several months about change. We can’t control change. We have to learn to adapt to it and overcome. Believe me, I am looking in the mirror convincing me of this more than ever. Keep plugging along. A reminder to us all to not give up. Life gets tough at times. But keep looking at the positives. The situations could always be worse. Do yourselves a favor and make every effort to keep moving. Control what you can and accept what you can’t control. That goes for all of us…me included. Keep moving everybody! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Including residency, I have spent 35 years as a physician, and I am on year 32 in Watertown. My whole career here after I was done with training. Chris has been my nurse from day one. She had some years under her already by then. She took me under her wing, and we have been together since. If I learned anything in residency, it’s that you never “make the nurses mad!”–they can make your life “He..!” otherwise. Chris is working on year 50! Some of you may have heard already…I made an announcement on Thursday this week. Life is about change, and it is time for a change. I am going to finish up my role as the Chief Medical Officer at the end of December and go back to the clinic more days in January and February. But at the end of February, I am going to retire. I am calling it a career…
Chris and I have come a long way over the years. Time is catching up. When I retire, Chris is planning on retiring…maybe. The end of July marks the completion of 50 years for her, and she is torn by this, and thinks she has to go to the end of July for it to count. I am trying to convince that she is on “year 50 right now!”. If you see her, encourage her—she has 50 years in!!!!
This is a shot from when I turned 40! This seems so long ago, but really, it just flew by. I struggled with this decision for some time now. The stress of all of it is taking a toll. I have to start thinking of my own health. I tell patients all of the time when they are trying to decide: “I take care of a lot of patients at the end of their life. I am waiting for the first one to say their regret is–If I just could have worked longer!” Nobody has told me that yet, and I don’t think I will hear it either! Chris, along with the “Reiffenberger Team”–Dr. Sarah included, has given our life to Watertown. Sarah plans on working yet…she always said she wanted to have a “couple years at least” to work after she was done with OB, so she could see what life was life without having to rush out of clinic, or the all-night deliveries. She stopped doing OB at the end of January. So, she tells me now I will be getting the groceries and making supper now! Any fast, really good recipes, I would take them all please!!!
I see this next stage of my life as to how it feels when I got done doing a marathon. You finished it…but then you start planning for the next adventure. This was 7 years ago after the Disney Marathon! Bring it on! Let’s go for it! I have always wanted to write a book–this is now on the agenda. My turn to try and create a “medical thriller!”. We will see what happens. I will get to have more time to spend with the grandkids, make (and eat!) chocolate chip cookies, and of course, there is always time for peanut M & M’s.
I may struggle at first. My life has been spent figuring out how to help other people…
…how to help people and make a difference for them. I hope I made a “good” difference. I don’t know everything and never will. For the past 35+ years, medicine has been more than my profession–it has been part of my identity. From my first white coat to the last committee agenda, I’ve had the privilege of practicing alongside amazing people, caring for generations of families, and shaping systems that help others heal. I spent my career working alongside my Sarah as well. We made a great team for each other, at clinic and at home. Chris made a great team for me at clinic! Those 2 people shaped my career! I sent a notice out to all Prairie Lakes employees to do me a favor. I have had the opportunity all of these years to help keep an eye on Sarah each day at work to make sure she was doing ok with everything. I won’t be doing that now. I asked all of them to please help keep an eye on her for me! I am truly anxious to see how the sequel to the first book of my life goes. I am finished in one area and starting on another…I still plan on writing my blog. I will still keep encouraging everyone to do what is in their control to help with their health, both with diet and activity. Stay healthy! Keep moving everybody!
I love taking landscape photos, especially sunrise and sunset photos. Every one has similarities, yet they are all different. It is my time to escape…to relax…to sit in “awe” of what has been created for me…for us. Last year Sarah and I went with the kids to Utah, and Zion. One day we took off to Page, Arizona, and went through antelope canyon. Wow!!!! You are in the desert and enter an amazing world of sandstone created by wind and water. The photos from this trip have made this one of the best places I have ever visited. But you don’t have to go anywhere special to be in awe of what natures creates. Jackson Park is one mile from my house, and I have taken more photos there than anywhere else. I went out around 8PM Tuesday night when my daughter Megan told me the Northern Lights were visible. I took off and got an incredible show that I have never seen before. And I did not have to go to Alaska to see it!
The greens and reds and color dancing was amazing! I sent some to her and Sarah to see what I was getting, and Megan replied back: “Are you out there giggling like a little boy on Christmas morning?” Yep…I sure was! I had never seen anything like this before. Earlier in the year I saw the Northern Lights for the first time, in Jackson Park, but that time was a fraction of what I saw Tuesday night. This was a perfect example of when nature interrupts routine. We all get busy. We are all “rushing” to get things done. But sometimes, movement isn’t the point. Sometimes the point is to pause. To look up. To be still. To feel small. To remember that you are part of something much bigger than yourself. That evening under the lights wasn’t on my schedule. But it was exactly the kind of reminder I didn’t know I needed. “Awe has a way of realigning your mind.” When we let ourselves marvel at the extraordinary, we reconnect with why we do what what we do: to live fully, to feel deeply, and to not miss the opportunities we come across that is a part of living.
That is why the sunrise and sunset photos are so special to me. Each one tells a story. Many times, the sunrise sets the stage for the day, and the sunsets help bring a memorable close to the day. It is peaceful. Beautiful. Relaxing. Sometimes the real moments of gratitude arrive uninvited. You don’t need to be in hurry with things…to “get more done”…you just need to slow down, or even stop…and just look up! Keep moving everybody…but remember to take those times to slow down and appreciate what is in front of us. Enjoy each day, and let the “awe” help reset your day!
