Report of 11 Feb 2024

 Well, I was in a bad mood earlier, but it's resolving.  

A friend of a friend is interested in donating to the B.  That sort of news puts me in a good mood.  Farshid, a soul mate and dear friend from childhood, whom I'd spoken of last blog, had spoken of the B to a friend of his and the friend wants to help.  Yay!  One of the main purposes of having Nat's wedding at the B - in addition to the patients' participation - was to showcase the B (and its power to transform lives) to the world.  That is indeed happening - hooray!

We are well.  Scott attended training sessions that his partners gave at a corporate location.  I gave a talk on healthy weight and fitness, also supported by a corporate partner, and enjoyed it immensely.  In addition to solving medical mysteries and taking care of patients - especially to watch them get better - I love giving talks.  It's nice to give accurate, well-researched info (all credit to the American College of Physicians for their material) and answer questions, hopefully shatter misconceptions.  

I have a telemedicine practice and have a patient who is balking at taking meds for blood pressure.  I told her of an inmpoverished patient I once had who could afford her diabetes meds for 5 days of the month; this lady came to me with high blood pressure and I told her the benefits of walking 30 minutes a day and watching the salt in her diet.  I suggested that she adopt these 2 measures and we would reassess a few weeks later.  The lady came back to me a few weeks later and voila! - her BP was 20 points lower.  It was fabulous.  My joy showed through and both she and I were very happy - she to avoid paying for medications, and I to see that simple interventions were yielding powerful results.  

When I am in a foul mood, I think of Nat and James touching my Dad's feet so correctly and my Dad feeling valued and included in the wedding ceremony, and all is better.  

I don't watch movies these days.  At one time, I used to watch 3 in 1 day.  We get "Friends" here and I often watch a little 22-minute snippet - sans commercials - and feel lighter.  

We hope you have many good and light days.

Until next week -

R

Report of 8 Feb 2024

Good morning!

Time flies, eh?  Here we are in the 2nd month of the year, already.

We were in Pune last week.  We went primarily because we have some friends there and I have never seen the place.  Actually, these are friends of my parents, who - by virtue of family, their kids, etc. - became our friends.  Their son, Farshid, had pretty much saved my sanity during the wedding.  

Pune is pretty and the weather is lovely; food was tasty.  I had a great time.  We celebrated the birthday of the father of the family while we were there.  It was a nice time, harking back to when we lived on the same street.  

We saw some nice sights in Pune - a war memorial, a hill station nearby with caves dating back to 160 BC - and those were memorable.  The hotel had a breakfast buffet - a criterion for me when selecting hotels - and I ate a lot.  

I was in Madurai before I went to Pune, as I had to see my own father before seeing someone else's in the new year.  My father's hearing aid was not working and I sat bellowing, which was exhausting.  So I asked the hearing aid people to come, they did, hearing aid was changed.  This is an expensive entity, but it's pricier not to have it as cognition wanes when hearing does.  On the next phone conversation, my Dad could hear and that was good.  The father in Pune, too, now wears hearing aids; I had pushed for that when I saw them in Australia last year.  The value of hearing in cognition is considerable.  

My telemedicine practice continues, slowly.  It allows me time to keep up with continuing medical education and that is nice.  

We are otherwise well and hope the same with all of you.  Wedding pics of Nat and James arrived, and the magnificence of the Banyan and all its efforts show through nicely.  I am always struck by the color in Indian photos - vivid and happy.  

We hope you are happy and have vivid moments, too.

Unw -

R