NHBPM #24: More Than 24 Hours in a Day?

First off....Jeez, our posts are all out of numerical order. Steph and I are back from traveling this long weekend, so we're back on track to finish out the NHBPM challenge. I do have to admit that this is bugging my OCD-tendencies for symmetry. I'll just go line up some Skittles by color before eating them to feel better...

So, what would I do if I had more than 24 hours in a day? I didn't think this post would be as challenging as it's turning out to be since most days I feel like life is on perpetual fast forward, especially since having my daughter. I also wear many professional hats so I need to divide my time and attention across running our practice, seeing my clients, teaching graduate students, and being an IT consultant (yes, you read that last one correctly). Nevertheless, I feel a Top 10 list coming on for this post.

10. Read more books, especially in the history and biography genres. I have a copy of Walter Isaacson's Einsten biography that I've made it to page 12 of in the past month. I do read a lot every night, but 8 Silly Monkeys and The Monster at the End of This Book don't exactly count.

9. Do more public speaking, especially at patient education conferences.

8. Participate more in patient advocacy events, from local fundraisers to meeting with lawmakers in Springfield and Washington DC.

7. Email or call my friends more regularly than I do.

6. Become fluent in Spanish. I can get by, but I'd love to be a bi-lingual therapist.

5. Learn to knit.

4. Train for a half-ironman. I've done RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) 8 times and have run 2 half-marathons, but have never pieced running and biking together, let alone with some swimming. I think it'd be the ultimate challenge. I never claimed to be sane.

3. Start playing the clarinet again. I haven't played much since high school, or in almost 20 years. I'd also like to learn to play the Cello.

2. Cook more from scratch. In college I worked in a bakery for a while and learned to love to make fresh breads. I have many cookbooks that are very under-utilized.

1. Volunteer with Doctors Without Borders.

So You Have IBD During a Pandemic

Hey! What's going on? Been pretty boring over here in Chicago. Ok I don't need to elaborate on what the hell is going on in the world. We are being bombarded with information - some accurate, a lot inaccurate - about this pandemic. It's very easy to become completely overwhelmed by it all. We've been forced, pretty damn quickly, to completely overhaul our way of life for the greater good. To reduce the strain on our healthcare system of the sick and dying. And us humans are generally bad with rapid, monumental change that we really don't have a lot of say in. Our little reptilian brains do what they're supposed to do (prime us for fight or flight or freeze) but our advanced "thinking" parts of our brain have to interject with all sorts of unhelpful thoughts, thereby sending some of us off the rails. Before we start, turn off the news. Seriously. In the days following 9-11 we found people who consumed more 24-hour news channel information were mor

Psychosocial aspects of having an ostomy

This past Saturday, Tiffany and I had the honor of speaking at the United Ostomy Associations of America's Regional Midwest conference. I was assigned the task of speaking to the patients, and Tiffany addressed the partners or caregivers. I wanted to share with you some of the highlights from my talk. I only had an hour for my session, and with about 100 people in the room, it was not nearly enough time. I love bullet points, so here you go: We are all different! Every ostomate is different and not one size fits all for the emotional/mental aspect either. Who had months to talk about an ostomy and weigh pros/cons? Who was this a more sudden decision for? Who had cancer? Who had IBD? Something else? Who had an ileostomy? colostomy? urostomy? Who has a temporary? Permanent? Multiple temporaries? What age where you when you got your ostomy? Under 20, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60+ Who was single when they got their ostomy? With a serious partner when they had it? Some find a stom

IBD & Medical Trauma

Medical trauma is such an under-recognized issue for the chronnically ill. It's a hard topic to talk about because it can seem like we are pointing fingers at healthcare workers. Maybe that's why there are only, now, 4 studies on the topic in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). If you are someone who treats people with IBD please know I am not here to demonize or criticize. I am both a patient and a GI psychologist. I know the medical system from both sides. I know how messed up and broken it is. But ignoring this or rationalizing it away as only affecting a few folks is wrong. So let's talk about it. Post-traumatic stress (PTS) is the term we use for medical trauma due to technicalities in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTS can be less severe that full on PTSD, or it can be full on PTSD. Regardless, the symptoms are identical: Feeling hypervigilant/on-edge (increased

Mind Your Body

Search This Blog