This past weekend we had our South Dakota Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting in Deadwood. We had only a virtual option last year due to covid, but this year we had both live and virtual options. We all had to wear masks during the meeting and had tests available if anybody started having any symptoms. It was a very good meeting, and we learned a lot. Sarah had served as President for the last 2 years, having an extended year due to covid. She was receiving her plaque at the annual banquet. We had not gone anywhere for the last 5 months. It was time to get away. Whatever free time we managed to have, we spent outside hiking. As Family Physicians, we always have to keep learning. Lifelong learning. Four years of undergraduate work, 4 years of medical school, and 3 years of residency training for our specialty. Yes, Family Medicine is a specialty. All physicians have to have undergraduate training, and then the same training in medical school as all other doctors. Then things separated out in residency for what you type of physician you wanted to become. I always have a hard time when other provider groups advertise that they do Family Practice, and they are not Phyicians. We have a need for these other providers, but not when they falsely advertise. They can set up shop anywhere they want, and do “quick” services, regardless of the quality of care involved, or the level of training involved. I guess to me if they want to advertise family practice, or primary care, then go through the training that it takes to do it. No question, especially these last 2 years with the pandemic, we all needed help by other providers to see people acutely because it was impossible otherwise to see everybody who needed to be seen. But that is not primary care. Family Medicine encompasses care throughout the life cycle. Birth to grave, and all the health problems that can come up along the way. We have to know a lot of everything, but obviously we cannot know everything. That is when it comes time to refer to someone else. But we always have to keep learning.
The conference was 3 full days, early AM, to evening, learning the latest on medicine, and updates involved.
We take care of the “whole” person, mentally and physically. Just like for us, we had to have some breaks when we could just to get outside, and enjoy the mountains.
One evening on a break with the sun setting.
Early morning sunrise before the start of the conferences.
We stayed an extra afternoon after the conference to go hiking in the mountains with our daughter Megan. We needed to unwind and clear our heads after the conference ended. We learned a lot! We always have to keep reading, figuring out plans of care for our patients. We are always trying to figure out what we can do to help take care of our patients as best we can. It has been a huge challenge during this pandemic. All of the other health issues still come up, but covid keeps taking big portions of the day. Someday this pandemic will be over. The stress of this is having an effect on everybody, patients, and all health care providers. We are all doing what we can. Some days never end. But we show up the next day ready to take on more challenges. The life of Family Physicians. Always striving to take care of others. To all of you physicians out there, remember to take care of yourself as well. Keep moving everybody!
The second installment for “What is Your Purpose”: Family. No words can describe what your family means to you or should mean to you. If you can’t count on your family, who can you count on! I loved the line in the movie “Cheaper by the Dozen”, where the family in the movie had 12 kids. At the end one of the kids talked about another one of the kids: “There I times I want to kill her, but more important, there are more times that I would kill for her”. Now, it does not have to get to this extent, but the point of it was that we may not always get along every minute of every day, but in the long run, we would do anything for someone in our family! We have each other’s backs! We raised our kids to be active like us, and it carried on into their adult lives. We all have to put some effort into taking care of ourselves. That is also one of our purposes in life. We cannot just depend on somebody else taking care of us, or doing everything for us, if we are able to do it ourselves.
They learned right from the start that this family will be active, and we will support each other. We went biking, walking, running together. When I had some of my marathons early on, they were all there as cheerleaders. We support each other with what we do. Then as they got older, and their activities came up, we were in the stands or the sidelines cheering them on. Family support always. This is definitely one point to be grateful for, and one to be remembered for. We were a family, and I was Dad. Most men, not all, but most men can be Fathers, but we all earn the title of Dad. I want to be remembered for being the best Dad I could be. It was not always easy. Sometimes you had to put your foot down. They had to learn, and sometimes the hard way, to the point that you may not always be the most popular person. My kids may have thought, just like most kids, that we may have been tough on them at times. But it was actually tougher on Sarah and me!
Sarah and I still remain very active and will for as long as we can. We don’t just talk the talk but walk the talk! Just like the back of my shirt says on this picture: Success: A Journey–not a destination! Just like life! That is our purpose. Keep going on journeys. Keep exploring new things. Keep learning. Keep trying. Live!
We still try and get together to run races. Here we are at the annual Hump Day 5k. Our individual schedules may not always allow us to do them together as much, but we can still do them. On Thanksgiving, we have the annual turkey run here, and my daughter Molly and son-in-law did the turkey run in Marshall, MN.
One of the best titles I can claim is being a grandpa! I love spending time with Connor, who now just turned 6 months old. Molly and Tanner are sending us snapchats every day to show us what he is all doing. They are the highlights of the day! When I had my health scare almost 3 years ago, when I was 54, it was again a stark reality that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. My grandfather died at 54, and never got to see any of his grandchildren. No matter what, I got to start seeing mine, and spending time with them. I want to be remembered as being the greatest grandpa that ever was! As he grows up, he will blend right into the Reiffenberger family by walking and running races too. It is a family tradition after all! It will become second nature to him too!
No debate. Family is forever. Sarah and I created this family, and we are the foundation. I would be lost without her.
I want to go down as being remembered as a great husband too. Through thick and thicker! Together! Always! We have traditions to keep going, and races to run. Most important, we have memories to make. I want to stay on this ride for as long as we can. No regrets! Keep moving for your health. Keep your family moving. Keep moving everybody!
Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. Some people have warnings, others do not. For those that do, I hear many times as I am seeing them as a patient, things in life they wished they had accomplished. Being human, we always have regrets. If only I had done this, or this, or this, and on and on it goes. When we have choices to make, make them! We all make mistakes, but over time we learn from them. If you are wondering yourself what your purpose is in this life, now is the time to really sit back and think about it. I went to a educational conference one time, and the speaker was talking about the day we may die. The conference did not start off in the most cheerful tone, that is for sure. But, he said something that really stuck with me. He told all of us to think about how things would be when we are no longer here in this life. He also made us come up with what we wanted to be stated in our obituary. Wow! What do we want said? What do we want to be remembered for? What is/was our purpose in life? Did we do what we wanted? Were we happy? Did we make a change to improve things when we needed to? All kinds of questions that could just keep going. So now is the time for all of us to think about what our individual purpose is. If it is not what we want it to be, then what are we going to do about it?
During the Winter especially, it is easy to get a little down just because of the weather. It is cold, snowing, and the wind is blowing. How do you look beyond that? How do you find something positive in everything? That may be the beginning of trying to find your purpose. Look beyond! Enjoy life, and do what you can to help take care of yourself the best you can. At least then you could always say that you did everything you could to help improve your life. Be happy! Some days this may take work to accomplish. What are you grateful for? What in life makes you happy? We all have different things we enjoy. Your purpose is hidden in here.
Life can get confusing. We all have pressures, some real, and some created in our own minds. We feel pulled in many ways. How do you juggle all of this? You can only be pulled in so many ways and stressing about it only makes things worse. Believe me, I have to tell myself this everyday also. Look beyond!
Sometimes things get so routine, you forget to any pay attention to things that are around us all of the time. If we learn to focus on those everyday things a little more often, we can actually find some satisfaction, and happiness, in it. Appreciate what you have. Challenge yourself. Keep setting goals. Have fun and enjoy life! That is your purpose!
What Is My Life Purpose? sign
What is your life purpose? What is my life purpose? Over the next several months, I will tell you what my life purposes are. I will have it intermixed with some of the other weekly blogs. My life purpose is going to center around: Family; Friends; Work; Running/Exercise; Goals. I, just like you, have lots of things to accomplish yet. One thing in my obituary I would like to have said is that I “lived life to the fullest”. Don’t waste any of our days. We can always live life to the fullest with the help of others. Never is this more important with everything going on in this crazy world. Come up with your purpose…the reason for which you do something! Whatever it may be, give it purpose. What do you want written about you for your obituary? When I talk about some of those things for me coming up, I will refer to it as my “purpose series”. Maybe some of this will hit home for you as well. As the first picture of todays blog shows, my first purpose will be related to family. Keep moving everybody!
Winter is here! We have a saying in our run club: There is no such thing as cold weather, just the wrong clothes! For most of the Winter, that is true. These last few days when windchills have been between -20 and -40, it is better to come up with alternatives inside for exercise. Whether you have exercise equipment or not, there are other activities that you can do just by doing body weight exercises. In general, if you are going to be outside, you need to have the right gear on. Especially something that helps block the wind.
Our dog Dakota always wants to go out no matter what the temp is. We can’t take her out when it is this cold either, but when we can at least be above zero, we are out there. You need to wear a thick coat that the wind can’t penetrate, and a face covering are both a must. Sarah’s hands tend to be very sensitive to the cold, so she has hand warmers put in mittens as well.
You need to have a good base layer on, and something that can breath when you are sweating, but that can also block the wind. I love my goretex equipment. In the Winter, I won’t run outside without it. Huge benefit, and well worth the investment. When it is too cold outside, especially with the windchill, you resort to indoor activities.
Of course, Dakota has to help when I am riding the bike also. This is where it can be a good investment for at home, or have a membership to the Wellness Center, or other gym, and have use of multiple pieces of other exercise equipment.
Sarah and I will be out in the “Reiflex Center” quite a bit (a corner of my garage that is heated) and do body weight exercises. Push-ups you can do anywhere, anytime. My friend Tom will continue to go up and down the stairs in his house for 30 minutes or more for one of his workouts.
We will do planks, kettle bell activities. lunges, squats, box steps, jumprope, and on and on. The list is ongoing as to what you can do. But, if you do venture outside, there are always things that still can be very enjoyable to look at, even when it is cold outside.
Just remember to be creative, and do something else that you can enjoy as well. A workout is a workout. We can all stand to have some variety. But you can’t wait for the weather to always be perfect. We live in South Dakota afterall!!
The biggest thing is you have to remember to keep moving to help stay warm!
No more excuses. Either get outside and get going, or be creative and do something inside if the windchills are as bad as they have been this week. Bottom line, it does not mean you can’t do anything. Think outside the box. You don’t need to have all kinds of special equipment to be active doing something. We have lots of Winter here! Keep moving everybody!
We are beginning a New Year! Time to be done, really, with the last 2 years. Here is hoping 2022 will be better. We cannot control many issues, but we can control our attitudes. You also just have to remember; we are all in this together. Control what we can control, and continue to keep making your own goals.
Time to move on. Make 2022 a year for you. Make it one to remember for different reasons other than the last 2 years of covid. What can you do to change things? What can you do to change your attitude? Why would you change things? These are all questions you need to answer for yourself.
Take your dreams and turn them into reality. You have to move to do something about it. What is it you want to accomplish this year? Make a plan and stick to it. Be patient. Take small steps to make big changes.
The only limitation is what is between your ears. If we think we can, we will. If we don’t think we can, we won’t. Your attitude is truly everything. Make it your goal this year. The sky is the limit. Have fun with things, and if needed, get a training partner, or partners. It makes working out much more enjoyable.
It is time to see what you are made of! Are you one to sit back and see what happens, or as I have said in previous posts, are you going to be in the driver’s seat making things happen? The choice is yours. The road to those goals may not always be easy. Consider them as temporary roadblocks that you need to maneuver. And especially around here, the weather is a big factor.
Things we want may not always be easy. There can always be some degree (such as weather!) of unpleasantness. But, many times, it is temporary. Keep looking at the big picture. Why do you want those goals you have made? Are you willing to put in the time to achieve it? Are you ready to put in the time?
Believe in yourself! Nobody said it was easy. Some days you may wonder why you keep going, and if it is really worth it. There will be some bad days involved, just like everything. You attitude once again dictates how you handle things today, and what you will do tomorrow.
You don’t have to work on your goals by yourself. They may be your goals, but you can get help from others. This can be friends, spouses, kids, pets, whoever. Take advantage of those around you. Maybe that needs to be part of your goal: Accept help from others! Spend time with those people. It has been a great way over the years to spend more time with Sarah as well.
We had just got done running one Sunday this Summer and took a break on the dock at the Lake when we were done. Take time to appreciate those moments as well. Those people who are helping you have goals too, so be one to help them as well. We just closed out 2021…time to move on!
Make 2022 a year to remember: for all the right reasons! Keep moving everybody!
