Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 93

Coming to the Clinic - Part 7 - The Weight is Over

  The last few posts in this series have been rather weighty. It’s time to lighten things up.

   Back in March when I started this series on how to be the perfect patient, my plan was to take you step by step through your entire visit. Last time I wrote about that, I believe I still I had you sitting in the waiting room. Well, come on back!
   The first thing I am going to do is stop you at the dreaded scale. I feel bad that the scale always gets such a bad rap. Just like me, the teen-ager in the McDonald’s drive-through and the IRS, that scale is just doing its job. And that job is not to tell you that you are fat; its job is to help your health care provider keep you healthy. You can not blame that scale if it tells you something you don’t want to know. And if you really don’t want to know, don’t look. I’m not going to announce your weight to you or anyone else.  
   But before you even get on that scale, I bet you want to take off your shoes, empty your pockets, empty your bladder, take off your glasses and your baseball cap. And that’s ok, but first I want to ask if you have ever flown on a commercial airplane?       Us seasoned travelers know how to dress when we will be going through airport security. For starters, we wear our airport shoes. Footwear that is comfortable for walking but quick and easy to slip on and off. Few things annoy me more than standing behind someone in line who has to untie and unlace their eight-inch high hiking boots.       Feeling secure about their footwear, the seasoned traveler already has empty pockets. All they need to carry on their person is their boarding pass and ID; everything else will already be tucked into their carry-on.        So, when you come to the clinic and you know you will get weighed and you hate to see what the scale will say, plan ahead as if you were on your way to meet with TSA. Set your carry-on on the counter, slip off your airport shoes and step right up. It just makes everyone’s life easier. You don’t waste your time and mine emptying your pockets and shedding extra clothing. You don’t have to worry about putting it all back on your person or leaving it behind. It’s just so much easier.       Which may lead you to ask, “but why do you have to weigh me every time anyway if it is such a hassle for everyone?”
   To be honest, we probably don’t have to weigh every person every time. But sometimes, we won’t know that til after the provider sees you.
   You may have some vague complaints and when we add to the mix that you have lost 10 pounds in the last three weeks without even trying, your doctor may go, “ah-ha!” Or you really hadn’t noticed how swollen your feet and ankles have been, and now that your doctor sees your weight is up significantly since your last visit, he or she will once again go, “ah-ha!”
   The list of medical diagnoses about which your weight is important include hypertension, congestive heart failure, diabetes, thyroid disease, sleep apnea, arthritis, cancer and many more. And it’s not always an increase in weight that we are concerned with; unexplained weight loss is something to look at also.
   One other thing, no matter how few clothes you wear when you stop on our scale, the first thing you are going to think to yourself, or say to me, is “but my scale is five pound lighter”. And I totally believe you, because mine is too, but the scales in your medical clinic are supposed to be calibrated by professionals at least once a year. They are as accurate as they can be; sometimes your weight is just going to fluctuate by a few ounces from the time you walk from the scale in Hall A at your clinic to the one in Hall C.        I seem to be running a bit long here, so will end by saying, don’t let your weight weigh you down, let your health care professionals do their job and let them tell you what to do or not do about those stray pounds.  

There Will Be Trouble in this Life

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (New International Version)
I am pretty sure that at every Lifest that Tiffany Thompson has been at, I have heard her speak. This year, the title of her talk was “Where’s the Gift in It?” When things are going badly, when life is handing you too many lemons, when you are sure nothing else can go wrong, and then it does, where are you supposed to turn? How can you see your way through to Jesus?
Tiffany shared a wonderful story, which I won’t retell here, but the gist of it was that as she was going through a trying time, and one thing after another kept going wrong, each thing was followed by a God-moment. An instance or incident where God was clearly fixing things. Where nothing so bad happened that she couldn’t find God in it.
One example. When she was in a distant city dealing with this crisis, she didn’t have a vehicle to drive. Someone she barely knew loaned her their son’s vehicle. And it wasn’t just a 1990’s Buick, it was a fully-loaded, off-road-capable monster Jeep. She showed a picture of it, it was a beast. To me, it was really an example of God’s great sense of humor.  
 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:2-3 (New International Version)
Yes, in this life you will have trials, but it will come out right in the end, to the glory of God.
Thank You, Lord, for being there for us, for picking up the broken pieces of our lives, for showing us the Light on the cloudiest of days. Amen.

Flashback Friday to this Past Spring

 This almost feels like a Flashback Friday post. It was less than four months ago that I left for my fifth trip to Kenya. Seems like a lifetime ago. With each subsequent trip, I fear I am going to forgot the finer details. I need to find the time to write them all down.
 The morning after my son Nick and I arrived in Kenya, our hosts whisked us away to Maasailand; I've already blogged about that. The drive out there always seems quicker and more painful than the one coming back to civilization.
 On the drive back to Nairobi, after a few hours, we stopped at a café and giftshop for a potty break, where some of the girls befriended this little fella.  He was really quite the ham. I’m sure he’d learned how best to get some handouts.
 If only we could take him home with us.
 Our next stop was George’s Resort, for lunch, just outside of Mai Mahiu.
 There, we befriended a momma and her kittens.
 You’ll find cats and dogs all over Kenya, but when people barely have enough to feed themselves, they don’t consider them pets. They live on what scraps they can find or what well-meaning mzungus give them.
 It still surprises me to find these kinds of park-like settings in Kenya. I’ve been to many parks in my many travels there, but somehow I can’t get used to it.
  I guess Nick finds it surprising too.
 The whole group we got to know while we were there. More new friends from around the world.

Coming to the Clinic - part 2 of part 6 - get high on life

 Three weeks ago, I shared the objective saga of the prescription drug crisis in America and what is believed to be one of the causes of it. Today, it’s my turn to tell my side of it, the personal side, what I’ve seen in the past and what I see every day at my clinic.
 Thirty years ago, right about this time of year, I was hit in the face with the reality of addiction. Thanks to my first husband, I learned all about twelve step programs, spent an hour every week in an Al-Anon meeting, came to understand what enabling was all about, and fought to accept the fact that this was a disease just like diabetes or cancer. And just like diabetes or cancer, I could get mad at the person with this disease who wasn’t taking care of themselves and getting treatment.
 Everyone’s body and mind react differently to any substance put into it. Most people can give or take alcohol and it’s no big deal, while others can’t put it down. Some of those people could control their alcohol use and some are truly wired to be addicted.
 The same thing goes for street drugs and prescribed drugs. There are factors such as family history and past medical history which can indicate what you are going to do with such drugs, but no system is fail-safe.  
 So, here is the reality I see in the clinic where I work.
 We have patients safely and appropriately taking pain pills like Vicodin and Tramadol, sleeping pills like Ambien, and ADHD meds like Adderall and Vyvanse. These patients are going to sign a contract saying that they will behave and follow our rules; they will give a urine sample when we ask for it; they won’t get early refills and they won’t go to another clinic asking for any other controlled substances.
 Then we have those patients who do not play by any of these rules. They lie to their provider, they lie to their pharmacist, they lie to their families, they manipulate everyone. The medical field has (hopefully) done its best to help these people, but if they aren’t going to help themselves, there is nothing left for us to do except to cut them off.
 The first thing a person learns when they are in AA or any twelve-step program is that they have to admit that they have lost control, that they are powerless over their addiction, that their addiction has taken control of them. The sad part is that if they get to this point, there are fewer and fewer drug addiction centers out there and fewer insurance providers which will cover a 28-day stay in one. If addiction is truly a disease, why aren’t there enough specialists willing to see these people? I think that’s where we are losing this war on the opioid crisis.   
 Of course, the other reality is the world we live in. A society seeking instant gratification, filled with sensory overload, where support systems may be sketchy and tempers are often near the tipping point. I think that people just need to learn to relax, do some meditation, take some deep breaths, turn their lives over to God or whatever healthy higher power they believe in.
 Thirty-four years ago, before I knew any of this, a friend and I were talking about people who smoke marijuana, and he said, “Why get high on drugs? Get high on life instead.”
 Rather corny words, but, oh, how wise. Try it, my friends, look at the good things around you, stop focusing on your pain or your problems, and get high on life.     

Will I Ever Walk in His Ways?

  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2 New International Version)
 Wow, it’s only been two weeks since I wrote a Sunday inspirational blog post? Seems like so much longer. Here we are in the last official month of summer and it feels like my brain has gone on vacation without me. Or something like that.
 One month ago, when I was still at LifestChristian Music Festival in Oshkosh, Bill Yonker was the speaker at Saturday morning worship. (He is the senior pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in East Dundee, Illinois, by the way.)  
He used the verse above as the topic of his message. And though I wrote that down in my little notebook that morning, I don’t remember what he all had to say about it.
It’s not too hard, though, to get the message out of this passage. And I feel that this past week I failed miserably in living in.
 “Walk in love, just as Christ loved us.” Did I do that last week? Only some of the time. Will I do that in the coming week? I may try but I will fail miserably, once again. Why? Because I am a sinner. I can try as hard as I can to live a Christ-like life, but I am never going to get it. At the end of the day, or the end of the week, all I can ask is for God’s forgiveness and for the people I have wronged to forgive me as well.
 Lord, God, Heavenly Father, forgive me of the long list of sins I continue to commit day in and day out. Thank You, Dear Lord, for sending Your Son to suffer and die for me so that I need not be a slave to my sin. Send Your Holy Spirit to strengthen me so I can begin to walk in Your ways. Amen   

Just Let Me Sleep

I really thought that by now I would have caught up on life and gotten back to blogging on schedule. Hmm? Hasn’t happened yet. Can’t understand why. . . .

Here is what I remember doing in the last three and a half months.
Left for my fifth trip to Kenya (and first trip with the son) and had a 23 hour layover in Zurich. Had the usual good time in Kenya, with the usual bag of mixed feelings. Only a six hour layover in Germany, just enough time to eat lots in the airport. A good friend’s wedding in June. Oh, and Hubby's retirement party, which I didn't get any pictures of.  My thirty-plus year dorm reunion. An overnight to East Troy, where the son lives. Lifest! How many years has it been again? Eleven, I think I decided. Camping in the UP. Wedding at my house. And coming up in the next three and a half months? So far, a four-day writer’s retreat, four weddings, a few other parties and get-to-gethers, and the family Thanksgiving at my house. Uff-da. No wonder I am tired. 
Hope you have a good last month of Summer. Keep checking in, I will get back on schedule next week. I promise. Just let me sleep first. 

Just a Quick Hello

Wow, the first of August already.
So, today I really wanted to write a continuation of last week’s post on my series about visiting the clinic. After the day I had yesterday, I didn’t think I could write on that subject objectively. Plus, well, I have other things to do this week.
Saturday is the big day. My brother-in-law and his long-time girlfriend are getting married in my backyard. Do you think we can get this yard in shape by then? Watch for the pictures of how the day develops, on Sunday, though, of course, after it is all over and I get some sleep. I’m sure it will go off without a hitch. Currently, the weather forecast is looking perfect for an outdoor wedding. Check my other blog, writing what I can when I can, for my complete to-do list. 

Chosen to be God’s Children

 3 Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. 4 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.

Because of his love 5 God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! 7 For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which he gave to us in such large measure!
In all his wisdom and insight 9 God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.
11 All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning. 12 Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!
13 And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. 14 The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory! (Ephesians 1:3-14 Good News Translation)
It seems like such a long time since we got home from this year’s Lifest. I’m looking at the calendar, going, “Really? It was only two weeks? Fourteen days? What in the world has been going on since then? I barely even remember being there.”
Well, there was that upper respiratory crud that I was fighting for the entire last two and a half weeks, along with five days camping since then. Boy, good thing I took notes.
The above Bible passage was from Pastor Joel Zeiner, the man who led devotions Friday morning. He is an associate pastor at Christ the Rock Community Church in Menasha, WI.
Even though I wrote down that he spoke on Ephesians 1, verses one through fourteen, I didn’t write down everything he said about it. The theme was about what a complete plan God has for us, with the emphasis being on how many times He mentions in these few verses how He chose us. That’s all the notes I wrote down. Reread the passage above, and I don’t think there is much more I can add to it.
Heavenly Father, thank You for calling each and every one of us by name, to be Your children. And thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to set us free. Amen. 

Coming to the Clinic - part 6

It’s been four months since I started my series of blog posts regarding how to be the perfect patient. My goodness, what a slacker I have been! Hopefully you have hung in with me and have reread the previous posts that I have shared most recently on my social media. Last week I reminded you about the importance of knowing what medications you are on. This week, I am going to focus on one family of medications.
Back in the mid-1990s, the American Pain Society decided that your health care provider needed to record a fifth vital sign. After measuring your blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate and temperature, we were told we had to ask you if you were in any pain. It was felt that the medical community was doing their patients a huge disservice by not addressing their pain. They told us that we had to ask every patient, every time if they were in any pain, and if they answered in the affirmative, we had to find out where it was, how bad it was and how long it’s been there. The provider would then go into the room, address this information and treat the patient’s pain.
This patient might be in for a routine blood pressure check and the chronic arthritic pain they have in their back wasn’t even on their radar. They had been told years ago that no one could do anything about this pain. Yet, now, here you are seeing your family practitioner and now he or she is obligated to give you something for your pain.
In those first years of this mandate, prescribing Vicodin or a similar narcotic pain pill seemed the popular course to take. Until the medical field got thousands of its patients hooked on narcotics and then had to deal with getting them clean.
Thus began the prescription opioid epidemic. There were other causes which spiraled this situation out of control, a whole litany of issues, that I’m not going to get into. However we got to this point, a large number of people across the country are popping too many controlled substances. These include not only those popular pain pills like Vicodin, Percocet and Morphine, but also benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium, sedatives like Ambien and ADHD meds like Ritalin and Adderall. The list of controlled substances is massively long. The most common way for a medication to get on this list is if there is any potential for abuse.  You would be shocked to know some of the measures people will take to get a buzz off of these things.  
So now that the federal government has figured out that they have a country of people hooked on prescribed medications, they have decided to make your health care provider the bad guy, the one who has to try to get you off these meds. Or at least monitor the situation.
If you are on any of these medications, for whatever reason, it may not be only your health care provider’s idea to either cut you off your drugs or make you sign away your life to stay on them. It is the federal government. I’m just telling you that. 
Now, I’m going to tell you what this means to you if you are taking any of these controlled substances on a regular basis. I am sure all clinics are a little bit different, but in general, they are all supposed to be keeping track of who is taking what, when and why. At your next office visit, you might be asked to sign a contract stating you will take these meds only as prescribed, not get them elsewhere, not give them to your friends (or sell them to strangers). You might also be asked to give a urine drug screen so that we know you are taking only what you are supposed to be.
None of this is because we think you are a criminal. We are not trying to “bust” you and take away your drugs. We are trying to do what is best for you; what is best for you could just be to get you off these meds entirely. But we are also trying to obey the laws that have come down to us from above.
There is a plethora of information about this on the internet, but here are just a few websites:
https://www.mdedge.com/ccjm/article/109138/drug-therapy/fifth-vital-sign-complex-story-politics-and-patient-care
http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/pain-not-fifth-vital-sign
https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml
(I’ve tried to keep my opinion out of today’s article. I’ve tried to share the facts, as I see them and as I have ascertained them off the internet and from my own clinic. There is a lot more I could say on this topic, but I think I will cut myself off here.)

God is so, so good to me

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10Last Sunday, I blogged about this cold I was coming down with and how I hadn’t found a lot of inspiration at Lifest. The cough, congestion, and drainage of this cold got completely out of control by Monday morning, just as we were packing to go camping. I was miserable the entire day, toting around my box of Kleenex like my lifeline. We got to the campground, set up the camper and I was done. I was so done with just everything - being sick all the time, aching all over, dealing with not only my heel spurs, but a new pain in my right knee, the continuing pain in my hands and that weird pain in my right upper arm which had suddenly morphed into a bruise. (Maybe I should just get a good physical, huh?)So, I crawled into my sleeping bag Monday night and instead of a nice bed-time prayer of thanks, I went off on a rant to God. I know, not very Christian of me. When I do that (which don’t we all at times), I feel like such a non-believer, as if I am testing God. “Prove You are really who You say You are”. But God is so much cooler than that. When I quieted my mind enough to listen for an answer, He clearly said to me, “Be still and know that I am God.” He could have used a verse about “in this world you will have trouble” or “do not lose heart” or any number of other verses. But no, He’s got this. He knew what to tell me. He knew what to say which would settle my fears and doubts and anger. Lord, God, Heavenly Father, You are so, so good to me. Especially when I don’t deserve it. You are my Rock and my Shield. Thank You for Your faithfulness. Amen. (And by the way, even though I was able to sleep in the comfort of God’s arms on Monday night, this cold dogged me all week. Not gonna blame God though, coz He is still so good to me.)