Let it snow, let it snow..

Well, here’s the second “snowstorm” of the season that didn’t produce much snow.  I had a lot of cancellations at the clinic.  Has everyone forgotten that in the past, the cities didn’t shut down when there was some snow?  All schools were cancelled and such but the roads were never bad.  I certainly understand that you want to be safe, but my goodness!  I miss the old days when people used to know how to drive, walk, live during the winter.  Oh, I should probably mention how my formerly subluxated car’s battery died on Sunday.  I finally put in the new battery this morning.  I broke my second ice scraper of the season trying to clear the ice sheets that had formed on it. 

Last night my case manager and my wife (the office manager), took time to put together their FLT (First Line Therapy) plans.  We will have this coming together at a good time.  The number one resolution for the new year is always weight loss.  Our plan will be designed to not only help people with those goals, but to help with cholesterol, blood sugar, and other metabolic problems.  I’m pretty excited to get it established as part of our office.    Speaking of office, back to work! 

101

The title of this entry refers to the fact that I have now had 101 views so far.  I hope everyone has enjoyed it so far. 

I had another strange dream last night.  I had to take my five year old (yes, he seems to be a frequent visitor to my dreams) to rehearsal.  I left the house (don’t know whose house), through some kind of parking garage.  I was holding his hand as we ran along the side of the road.  I remember the dirt and gravel trail I was running on.  It seemed like there was some sort of motocross event being run on it.  The traffic was coming toward me so I could see when they are coming and get off to the side.  This continued for about a quarter mile.  Suddenly I instinctively scooped up my son and carried him and just in time, I dodged the motorcycle that jumped over us from behind.  Without losing stride, I set him on my shoulders and picked up the pace.  Then I woke up.  I couldn’t recall if I was running to my car, or was planning to take him the whole distance on foot. 

In true blog style, here is a picture of me using my camera phone at arms’ length.

  

Subluxated Car

Ok, I have to share something that happened to my “other car”.  I don’t drive my Satellite in the winter, so I also have a Dodge Intrepid (note that we have vehicles from all the big 3: Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth).  This summer I let some friends borrow the Dodge when they were having car troubles.  When it got back, it ran very, very poorly.  It still got me to Minneapolis and Chicago, so I thought I’d just limp it along.  I checked the on-board computer and it told me the Oxygen Sensor was out of range.  I then planned to change the sensor at some point. 

Enter the Car Doctor.  He is no longer a mechanic in my eyes, he is a Doctor that happens to work on cars.  He listened to my description of what the problem was and he said that it’s probably not the O2 sensor.  He told me to top off the fluid levels and then to reset the computer.  As I was sitting in my car for a half-hour at idle with it in gear, and every accessory I could think of running, I could actually feel the computer learning how to run the engine.  A half-hour later, it was a completely different machine.  I drove it around the block and then put it away for the evening.  The next morning?  No problems.  My car was SUBLUXATED!  The computer was not fully aware of what all its sensors were reading.  Based on incorrect or incomplete information, the computer was responding as it thought it should.  I deal with this problem all the time in my patient population and get amazing results.  I just never thought of my car having the same problems.

Rocking chair thoughts

As I sit here in the rocking chair that used to belong to my grandmother with a baby sleeping on my shoulder I began to realize how much has changed since we moved here.  We have begun to hit that stage when we can’t go out in public anymore without being recognized.  I guess that is inevitable when you don’t really blend into the crowd as it is and you live in a relatively small town.   We recently went into a fancy antique/”thrift” store.  I put “thrift” in quotes because there were furniture sets that cost almost twice what we paid for our house.  I had to wonder, did kids live in that house?  Where is all the telltale damage?  There were no pen marks.  I didn’t see nail-polish spills.  Not one stain.  How do the “other half” live?  How do they raise children?  Are they not allowed to touch things?  I guess I’ll never know.  My children are in a warm house, are clothed and well-fed.  A child piped up during the children’s sermon today with:  Christmas isn’t about packages, it’s about the birth of Jesus.  Kind of says it all, doesn’t it.  Some people get so caught up in the commercialism of the holiday.  They are so worried about what they are “supposed to do”.  Sending cards, gifts, decorating, hanging lights, dressing up, baking and gatherings are all things many people stress about, but don’t really matter.  I do tend to get more patients fighting off illnesses this time of year, and they usually blame it on the weather.  I believe it’s more likely stress.  My daughter took my (not sleeping anymore) baby from me.  She is getting more and more mature every day.  Her dance teacher told me a story that she witnessed in class.  A young girl was having a hard time getting the correct arm and leg combination and started to cry.  My daughter (ever the mommy type), took her hand, encouraged her and told her they would do it together until she got it right.  It almost brought tears to the teacher’s eyes.  Makes me want to video tape moments like that and show them instead of answering when someone questions home-schooled kids’ lack of social skills. 

I added a link to my car’s blog- LOL!  Check it out if you are interested.

Warning:  explicit dream ahead.  If you don’t want the graphic details, stop now.

I had a dream that our family was visiting with friends (don’t know who) on a farm.  We were sitting at picnic tables and it was night.  Somehow we attracted some mountain lions who stalked us.  I tried to get their attention away from my family and jumped up on the table.  The nearest lion pounced on me.  I fended him off with barely a scratch on my arm to show for it.  I then pounced on him and kicked him in the head repeatedly until he died.  When I woke up, the last thing I remember is some official looking men examining the big cat’s body.  These dreams keep getting more and more weird.  I remember thinking in my head as I was kicking, that I really didn’t want to kill it, I was just afraid what would happen if I didn’t. 

Rockets launch

I suppose I should also reveal another part of my life.  I am a devoted Houston Rockets (that’s NBA basketball for those of you saying, HUH? right now) fan.  I was kind of in the dumps about it because they had a six game losing streak.  Now that they have won two in a row (on the road, no less), I am now content to write about it.  I like to read the blogs by Jonathan and Fran about the Rockets on Chron.com and have been known to post a message from time to time.  If I do, I sign Doc.  It’s what everyone calls me, so that’s what I call myself.  Which brings up another interesting point.  I suppose you might not know that when doctors are still pretty new, they don’t feel like doctors?  When they are fresh from their internship, they still pretty much feel like interns.  I don’t know how long that lasts for most people, but I suppose it comes from confidence built from success.  I have definitely produced enough success that I can honestly say I have none of those newbie feelings anymore.  I haven’t had them for a while now. 

I’m still learning this blog technology.  I wrote and thought I posted the last post last night, but I guess I must have hit save instead of publish.  When I went to post this, I noticed that the other message wasn’t there.  I eventually found it, but I was thinking, something was wrong.  I must have been hacked or something.  Of course that made me laugh at the thought of a computer hacker with nothing better to do than to mess with someone’ s blog that has barely got anyone to read it yet.  Hitting publish now.

Sunday!

I titled this one from a song that has been in my head lately.  Part of the sermon this week spoke to me.  Pastor Bob stated that you can tell if a society has God with it by how it treats its poor and downtrodden.  He was at the time referring to Germany and its (the Church at the time) turning its head away from what was going on.  What it said to me was that it is the Church’s job to provide for the welfare of the poor, NOT the government’s.  If the Church provides for the needs of the poor, it also exposes them to the people of the church and to God’s word.   If the government provides for the welfare of the poor, it makes them worship the government, not God.  That reminds me that I intended to make a posting to put up in my office to inform my patient base that I am singing and to invite them to come to church and hear me.  I think that may be my most effective outreach right now. 

I had a pretty good day at work today.  I had a new patient today totally blown away with what I was able to do to help her.  She made the comment that she should have come to me first with her problems.  It feels good to get those kinds of genuine comments.  I truly must say that I have the most rewarding job I can think of.  I literally get to change people’s lives on a daily basis and I get to entertain myself at the same time.  I have a lot of fun visiting with people while I work. 

Thank you

This morning’s dream…  I was on the street next to ours (in the dream though, I don’t know where it took place), and I went to a house where the car in the drive had its muffler hanging down.  I knocked on the door and a woman came to the door and suspiciously asked what I wanted.  I explained that my son (my 5 year old was with me in this dream again) and I were there to see if we could help with her car.  I told her I lived on the next street and I could see that she needed help with her car.  Now, I don’t know much how to do that sort of thing and really didn’t have any tools to speak of with me at the time, but I was determined to help somehow.  Yet another in a long stream of strange dreams.  I’ll have to get this one analyzed too.  ; )

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  Ang was amazing in the kitchen as she always is.  Believe it or not, I don’t think anybody really overate.  I cleaned up all the dishes for her.  She loves to cook, but not to clean.  The kids are LOVING the snow we have had.  It is rather frozen now, but they keep going out and playing in it.  I’m debating what to do today.  Ang said she needed some time for (gift) sewing projects, so I should probably at least part of the day get the kids out of the house for her.  I did some exercise yesterday and plan to do some as soon as I finish typing.  Oh, and I also pulled out the guitar yesterday.  I need to see if I can get a guitar pick one of these days when I’m out and about.  The kids lost the one I had.  I’m starting to get better.  I’m going to try to follow the Esteban video and books I have.  The more I use the program, the more I like it.  The guy really knows what he’s doing.  I noticed that I have to keep the nails of my left hand really, really short to play the guitar.  I normally keep them pretty short but if my 4th finger especially has any nail on it, I find it difficult to hold down that string properly.  Now… should I go out and brave that Black Friday crowd?  Might be kind of fun…  ; )

Home again

We had a great seminar.  I was mostly on kid duty, but my staff seemed to get a lot learned.  It’s nice when they decide on their own that we are making changes and telling me what I need to do to accommodate the changes.  I like to keep my focus on how to fix people, not on the rest of the office.

It is much easier to work out when you are NOT at home.  I have not worked out Monday or Tuesday.  I plan to tomorrow though.  There is a chance of snow tomorrow, so I may walk to the office so I can drive my other car home.  I may have to put the Plymouth away for the winter.

Do you know what is the saddest thing to experience as a health care provider?  When you care about someones health a lot more then they do.  I had an experience yesterday when I called a patient who was non-compliant with her program.  She suffers from a very debilitating condition.  If it were me, I would do anything it took to get well.  I cannot relate to people who put their own health last on the list of priorities.  Oh, well, it is actually a very long story and unless someone requests it, I won’t give the long version.  The end result is that I hope some day she will grow up and decide to take care of herself.  Until then she will be totally at the mercy of anyone willing to take care of her.  I pray that it happens sooner rather than later. 

Day one

Well, I did it.  I ate breakfast, and worked out.  I’m going to do my best to hold back.  My natural tendency is to go until I drop, but I know that my body isn’t ready for that yet.  I am pretty proud of my start though.  I came up with some pretty easy things to incorporate into my morning, no matter if I’m at home or traveling.  I can say that, especially after working out, it is hard work to carry around a child all day.

Funny thing I’ll share.  My youngest son, we’ll call him Peanut, was walking on the marble floor in the hotel lobby when some self-righteous people (you know the type) started asking “him” – where are your socks?  Then directing to me (since I OBVIOUSLY didn’t get the hint) where are his little socks?  His feet must be freezing.  I (with a horrified look on my face) said- if he was wearing socks on this floor, he would slip and crack his skull.  His feet are fine.  They could only agree with me.  I detest it when people think they know better how to raise your kids.  I DO have four for goodness sakes!  Sorry, had to share.  :p

Health, accountability and such…

I got an e-mail from another doctor that kind of hit home for me.  It stated that your patient’s health will never exceed your own.  If you don’t practice what you preach then you will not have the same credibility as if you were merely telling your patients to do what you do and enjoy the same healthy lifestyle that you do. 

So: I am going to use this blog to help hold me accountable and get myself back to the shape I should be in.  I know I need to eat better, sleep, exercise, stretch, and otherwise take care of myself.  Now I have (maybe someday) readers to help encourage me to do what I know I need to do.  I am traveling to Chicago today for office and staff training.  While I am there I will try to eat breakfast, and exercise.  Pray that I get this turned around.