That’s about what I have felt like I’ve had to say for the past couple of weeks. I haven’t been a good blogger because I really can’t think of much to say; that and I didn’t really want to take the time to sit and write :)
Since, I did write last I had my little lake vacation. I have never stayed anywhere alone like that. I stayed down a lonely dirt road in a little house at the back of a slu with literally no one around. I did see one fisherman in a boat come in the slu. I had no cell phone coverage, no internet, and some fuzzy t.v. It was a drastic change from my normal life of constantly taking care of people, documenting on the computer, and responding the mass of phone calls. So, I read, and took a nap, and watched a movie, and slept, and read, and tried to canoe (I was in a two man canoe with a skulling paddle and it was quite windy out. Despite having my dog in the canoe, I didn’t have enough weight for such a large canoe and the wind kept blowing me in circles. I just spun around like I was on a merry-go-round. That’s one advantage to having no one around – or not. I found the whole thing quite funny and no one was there to laugh with me), read some, took another nap, went on a walk, watched another movie, slept, went on another walk, and then got very, very bored. It was good. I haven’t been that bored in a long, long time. Even though that part wasn’t fun, I was very well rested.
I came back to work and it was just as I had left it – which is not really surprising but sometimes I am naive and I imagine things will be different. We now have almost 1200 patients under our care and are continually having to change and stretch as we grow more quickly than we imaged. We are planning a “Christmas party” soon to catch our kids up on their vaccinations (too which our dentist replied “That’s the worst Christmas present ever!” I hadn’t thought of it that way but it is pretty terrible :) We are going to have a Christmas tree and hot chocolate and give shots. Maybe we should have someone dress up in green and be the Grinch – they can administer all the shots and then we can advocate reading by giving everyone their very own copy of When the Grinch Stole Christmas. I am kidding of course but it is an odd combination but a great idea!
I don’t have a good quote of the week this time. I did laugh in one patient’s face but it was because she kept making up lie after lie after lie about why she hadn’t done what I told her. I finally just laughed and told her that I was just trying to help her be healthy and she didn’t have to do anything I told her. Then she started telling the truth. Along those same lines, I have had a bit of an epiphany this week. I have seen much more clearly this week how disarming kindness can be. People still flat out lie to me but the longer I am patient and kind to the people I see, the more of themselves they are willing to share with me. It makes sense but sometimes it is so hard.
Also, we do have a big need if you or someone you know can help us. We need volunteer bilingual spanish translators. Yesterday afternoon, I had 3 spanish speaking patients. My spanish has gotten so much better. I can understand most everything that is being said but I still have such a hard time speaking, especially when it come time to teach/instruct the patients about their self care. We desparately need people to help us so that we can serve more and more of the spanish speaking population. If you know of anyone or if you want to volunteer, email info@christhealthcenter.org.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and weekend.
My sincerest love.
Since I was a slacker last week, and didn’t want to write, I am a little back-logged in my head with stories. There is a whole lot of good going on at CHC/TDC. Here is some of what I know.
*I’ve been asked to limit my details/change some details to “protect the innocent” so these are completely made up names. If I use your name, it’s because I’ve run out of names in my head, or I think it is funny to use your name :) *
So, update #1 – A, our young girl that wanted to abort her baby that I wrote about a few weeks ago, is now going and getting her prenatal care at one of the doctors offices in town. I haven’t seen here but was able to talk to her on the phone and she is doing very well.
As an aside, RRR posted on his facebook page about the number of young girls from the neighborhood that are getting pregnant at such young ages. There were a slu of posts following that of people who wanted to help. I am so excited! These girls need someone to help guide them along as they become mothers and continue to have navigate being a teenager and learning about themselves. We will see what comes of that.
Now for update #2. Several weeks ago, B, came in wanting medical help. I realized that, like A, he needed someone to step in to his life and help him also. He got hooked up with TIL and now is planning to continue his education and pursue dreams that he has had since he was a child.
Last week, I met C and got the exact same impression from him as I did from B. I hooked him up with TDC and he was beside himself. He has been trying really hard to stay out of trouble but lacked any real guidance. It was like I gave him the best Christmas present ever! and all I did was walk him over to the next building. We will have to see what comes of that one too.
So, finally, after months and months and months of talk, the dentist office and pharmacy are going to open the last week of October. I believe them this time too. Our patients are so excited about have reduced cost dental care and medications. Both of these are going to be meeting huge needs, especially for our adult patients.
Also, for those of you that don’t know, I have had several people ask if they are allowed to come to our dentist or to see me or RRR if they have insurance . . . and the answer is YES! It actually helps us a lot to see insured patients – it balances are very reduced prices that our poorest patients pay.
Finally, thanks to RRR and L, I get to be off on Monday and go stay at the lake (somewhere :) I can’t wait. I desperately need to get away and have a break. It is supposed to be sunny with a high in the 50s in this weekend. There couldn’t be more perfect weather. Thank you! thank you! those of you that helped me get to do this!
Much love my dear sweet friends.
Do you remember picture pages? I don’t know what in the world made me remember that! I didn’t really want to write this week so I thought I would copy Time and publish “This week in pictures.”
I began the week with a baby shower for my sister-in-law and a birthday party for my brother with my entire family.
Then this little man FINALLY decided to grace us with his presence.
Then I finally got to meet this sweet little girl. We are going to be hanging out much more now!
And alas, the quote of the week: (I have no idea who T. Magic is but we will just call them the author of this quote :)
“I am not a negative person. I am a positive person. I am positive that I am absolutely miserable.”
We had a great week at the health center and dream center; we have a lot of growing and much more impact. Again, it is hard but good.
Much love my friends.
Since I have written, last the seasons have officially changed. Apparently the weather, at least here, decided it would change with the official date and it has been beautifully cool and sunny here. How much I have much the sunshine! and it is back with all of its glory and with gorgeous days. I am loving it.
It seems changes are a theme these days. At CHC, we have no officially been open for 6 months and we are quickly approaching a total of 1,000 patients under our care. It has called for much thought, adjustments, and change; thoughts of how things can be done better and differently and how to continue to provide the best medical care possible to a rapidly growing number of people.
The Dream Center continues to become more of a pivotal part of the neighborhood. It is now hosting classes for women on how to heal and become whole. There are more Saturday activities for the kids in the neighborhood. Sav-a-life is training volunteers to help us with our pregnant mothers. There were also some young white students down at the dream center and they ran into the Woodlawn football team – these kids all met out and now are all meeting together! I’m sure there is much more going on over there than I know about. It is just exciting to hear about it all.
I could share story after story each week, I’m sure. The one that stands out most to me this week is a teenage girl that I saw last week. She started cutting at age 12, had a child at 15, was arrested for meth at 17, and is now 19. She has had such a remarkable (and not in a good way) life so far. I saw her last week and she seemed to be so uninterested in what I was saying. I actually don’t even remember why she came in. I talked to our counselors about her before she left. She was completely opposed to seeing them. They gave me a book on cutting to give to her, which I did but I don’t think I assumed she wouldn’t read it but I never thought she actually would either. She showed back up this week and was much more present. We talked some more but every time we would change to some sort of substantial conversation, she would look like she was about to cry, and she would shut down. I had completely forgotten about the cutting book and she brought it up. She told me that she really enjoyed it and then saw someone with “fresh marks” and she gave the book to them to read. I was completely caught off guard. Then had brought me a small gift. I had no idea that any sort of impression was made at all at her first visit, but she was like a blossoming flower at this second visit. I am very excited about seeing her again now. I gave her some more reading and she is coming back to see me again in a few weeks. It is just a blaring reminder that we have no idea what sort of impact is going to be made with anyone, regardless of how they respond. I will keep you all updated about her.
And finally, the quote of the week. I am seeing this very obese young man who has both mental and psychological problems. He is the sweetest guy though. Currently, he has no true chronic medical problems aside from being overweight. I talked to him at the last visit about walking some. He said he would so on this visit I asked him if he had been walking and he said, “Actually, I did go on a walk yesterday. I walked around the block to Krystal.” :) I just laughed . . . at least it is a start.
Much love my friends.
This has been a big week for us at the health center. We had our six month anniversary today. We had a great “family” lunch together and all shared memories, mostly good, of our past 6 months together. We laughed and celebrated and were all extremely thankful for the past 6 months. We also dreamt together about what we would like to see happen in the next 6 months. I really do love those people.
We saw our 900th patient today! That was exciting news – not our 900th visit but 900th actually person for us to see.
The rest of the week has been pretty tough. There are just a lot of hard things that happen in peoples. This week, I seemed to see more of them.
Again this week, I saw another 17 year old girl that was pregnant except she had already decided to abort her baby. She already had a two year old child. That was a hard one. Lisa was able to come help again and Dr. Nate was so wonderful to provide an ultrasound again. We have yet to see what happens with this girl. She hasn’t shown the change like the girl from the previous week. My hope is that the first girl becomes a leader to these young pregnant girls.
I will keep you updated.
Much love.
So, I’ve finally made it back but I need a moment. I saw this picture this morning and am in love. Fall will be here next week. It is one of my most favorite things to be outside on a cool sunny day, all snuggled up, with the sun in my face, reading a good book. Could that moment have been captured any better? It makes me happy just to see it.
So, now on to the real post :) and I will start all over.
Now, a beautful photo in anticipation of fall. Despite all my talk, fall is my least favorite season, but it certainly is beautiful.
We have had a good couple of weeks at the health center. We have also had a ton of visitors recently. It has been good because many of these people are either providing services to help us function better, or they are partners in the area that also see our patients. Its been good to put faces to names and build relationships with the medical community in the city and with our other partners in the region.
I have two great quotes of the week and then a wonderful story of our partnership with the Dream Center.
First, I was talking to an older, very well educated, white lady yesterday. She came in complaining of basically panic attacks. She told me it was the worst thing that had happened to her since she “had to shoot my horse in it head.” I accidentally started laughing with that one. It was just completely not remotely how I imagined her describing her panic attacks. Then she proceded to cry and tell me about how she killed her horse. I immediately was serious again because she was not joking but it was so funny.
Also, I was talking to a lady over the phone last night about her lab results and her son’s lab results and then I saw in their charts that they both had appointments with us today at 10. She then procedes to tell me, “I don’t know if _____ will be able to make it tomorrow. He’s in jail, but his dad is going to pick him up tomorrow at 8 so nevermind, he will probably be able to make it.” Nevermind the “in jail” part. He will be there for his appointment. (For mom who I know will read this one day:) : He is a sweet mentally retarded guy that goes around and picks up cans and someone called the police because he was on private property. I’m ok)
Finally, one of our more difficult and rewarding stories. About two weeks ago now, I had a 16 year old girl come in with her mom for a school physical. Her mom wanted me to do a pregnancy test because she said her daughter was “gaining weight even though she is running.” I talked to the girl and did the pregnancy test that her mom requested and then went in and did her exam. I came out and the pregnancy test was positive. I did another one and it was positive. My heart sank. I went and told Robert. He told me that he would help me if I wanted but to also get the dream center involved to help this girl. I went in and told the girl and her mom that she was pregnant and the mom lost it. She was angry, disappointed, sad, and scared all whirled up in to one moment and she let her daughter know. I had Lisa, from the Dream Center, come in and talk to them with me. The little girl did nothing. She didn’t smile, cry, frown, flinch, or say a word. It was more disturbing than the mother because she literally did nothing. That went on for literally close to an hour. I was able to get the girl an ultrasound that day thanks to Dr. Nate and Dr. Campbell. I told the girl, who I realized after hearing the mom had lied to me about when she acutally got pregnant, that I needed to know when she really got pregnant to help the doctors help her. She told me, “I think April.” Again, my heart just sank. They didn’t have transportation so Lisa, who has a Miata, took the girl and her mom, in my car to see Dr. Campbell. They did the ultrasound and she was about 18 1/2 wks along. I haven’t seen them since then, but every day since that day, the girl has come and brought her friends to the Dream Center to do their homework. Lisa and Dr. Record went to the schools open house and saw her. The mom is now supportive and the baby’s father and his family are supportive and helping financially. Best of all, Lisa says, the girl is a completely different person and that she has come alive. She talks and laughs and is acting like a teenager. She gets to go back to Dr. Campbell one more time for a follow-up ultrasound and then she will start seeing her regular OB doctor. The Dream Center is planning to help this family through all of this. This is exactly why I wanted to do what I am doing!
Much love!
For some reason, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I’ve redeemed the day a bit, but am going to take a break from my blog today. Hopefully, I will have a post up for you this weekend. Despite my day, that has been a really great week. I have some good stories to tell.
Much love.
I feel like this picture is a great representation of how Woodlawn feels about itself. It makes me angry too.
I was talking with someone last week and her children had gone with a camp to Woodlawn to pick up trash. They were told several times throughout the day to “Just put it down. It’ll be there again tomorrow.”
I don’t know how many times I have been told that what I am doing is basically a lost cause; that these people feel entitled to health care, that they can never be taught to come to appointments on time, that they can’t . . . . and it will never . . . .
Monday, there was a fight just outside the health center. It was terrible. I remember people fighting in high school, but I had forgotten about the sound it makes when someone in just railing on someone else. There were people everywhere watching this fight. All of them were in school uniforms meaning all of them were still just kids! Later that night, when I left work, the policeman that watches us as we come and go said those kids had gone and gotten guns and were after each other now. Again, I was so angry. These kids were going to try and kill each other over somethine incredibly stupid I am sure.
Everyone on the outside believes that no one in Woodlawn can change. For whatever reason, people in Woodlawn believe that nothing will ever change. THIS IS A LIE!!!
I have been asked by several of my patients if I “will be there” when they need to come back or “when I am leaving”? Right now, no one is going anywhere. We are in this for the long haul.
A friend of mine has a plaque in her sons’ bathroom that I love. It is an old proverb. It says “Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.” This is true for Woodlawn as well. We are simply planting the seeds and hoping and watching (not wishing) for mighty oaks.
I know, without any doubt, that change and growth, is possible in Woodlawn. Just one tiny acorn at a time.
Much love my friends.
We had a really good week at the health center this week. I am getting much more comfortable doing my new job. Robert is also starting to be able to see more and more patients. We have a little system or two in place, which I am sure are subject to change next week but we are beginning to develop a little bit of a flow :) Its nice.
I do have some good stories from this week. Some funny, some good, and some sad but encouraging. Enjoy.
Thursday, Robert got an urgent call from the high school. They have not been able to have a football team for several years. Its so sad to me because sports were such a big part of my life growing up and in a lot of ways, they are completely inaccessible to these kids. But, this year there will be a football team. In classic Christ Health Center style, Robert got a call from the school on Thursday that the entire football team needed physicals to be able to play their first game on Friday :) So, the entire team shows up, and Robert called another physician friend, and they got the entire football team seen. It was fun yesterday driving in to work because the kids wear uniforms to school, black pants and white polos, and yesterday mixed in, were a few football jerseys and black pants. Change is in the air!! I’ll have to get back to you to let you know how they did last night. It almost doesn’t matter though. I am just thrilled that they are developing their football program again.
Currently, we are still doing free pregnancy testing. I had a young girl come in this week and her sister thought she needed a pregnancy test. I started talking to the girl alone and found out that she has had as many sexual partners as she is old, that she had been treated two weeks prior to her visit with us for an STD in the ER, had had sex again since having her STD, and then she told Robert that more than half of the guys she had sex with “truly loved her.” My heart broke for her. We spent a lot of time with her and now Truth In Love is going to help us out with her. She is actually excited about seeing them. I am cautiously looking forward to see what changes happen in her life.
I also had a lady come in to see me this week that had a colostomy. I won’t go in to too much detail because most people get grossed out by this sort of thing, but I good comparison would be to say that getting colostomy supplies is like trying to find a woman a good bathing suit. Its hard! She comes to me needing new supplies but she doesn’t know the size or kind of anything she is wearing. So, I decide maybe I can call her supply company and see what she has been getting. I asked asked her what their number is and she spouts of quickly “1-800-999-9999.” So I go and I dial the number and I hear “Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . .” and I hang up. So, I look at the number and dial it again, “Welcome to the singles hotline. Are you looking . . . .” At this point, I am starting to think this is funny because this little old lady just very quickly, without looking it up, gave me a singles hotline number. So, I am thinking this lady is lonely and is hanging out on the singles hotline but I decided to give it another shot and ask her what the number was again. And she says “1-888-999-9999″ (istead of 1-800 . . .). So, I told her what she had done. She just laughed. I asked her if she was looking for a special friend :)
Also, this week, we had a dental sales rep, who had had people over over the weekend and had extra food left over. He decided that he would bring lunch over to our parking lot. It was so fun. He set up chair and we sat outside and ate and people from the neighborhood just started showing up for the free food. We just sat and talked. Some people simply came and got food and left. Others, sat and talked with us and told us what they needed and how much they appreciated the health center and dream center. A GED class may come of that day from one lady’s expressed need. I really enjoyed that.
Finally, we have hired two new people. Lindsey Pimentel, who I wrote about a while ago, left to start school again so a huge hole was left that needed to be filled. We hired two of our most faithful nurse volunteers, Karen and Sirena, to job share a MA/nurse position. I am so excited because I enjoy working with both of them. They are completely different from each other but they both do such a good job. I am excited about having them come be a part of our little growing team.
Finally, look at what I got to do this past weekend! Could anything be more fun? I got to spend time with some of my dearest old friends and meet some of their children for the very first time. It was such a wonderful trip.
Much love my friends!
I’ve not been a good blogger lately but I have a good reason. I promise. I have been playing :) . . . hard!
For those of you who haven’t heard, I just got to spend the week, and my 30th birthday, in Huntington Beach, CA, with my aunt and one of my roommates. The trip, again, was more than I expected. We rode tandem bikes from Huntington Beach to Newport, got 2 hour long pedicures, napped on the beach, went to an Angel’s baseball game and got to sit, and eat :), in the diamond VIP section, went to California Adventure for free :), took surfing lessons again but this time was successful, and went kayaking off Balboa island. The whole trip was wonderful!
If you are interested, you can see a slide show of our pictures at Snapfish. Somehow, our attempt to get pictures with the sea lions didn’t make it to snapfish. I am going to try and fix it though. They are great. Stacey was afraid that we were going to get attacked by the sea lions which made it even more fun and funny for me.
I got back to work and was pleased to find that everything worked perfectly fine without both me and Lori being there. Our real sliding scale was started while I was gone; meaning that our patients are actually charged for their visit based on income. It is a really good thing because it is one of the requirements that we need to meet to become a federal qualified health center. This will enable us to keep our cost of service low and once the pharmacy is running, it will allow us to purchase stock for the pharmacy at a much lower cost.
Aside from that, this week was a good one at the health center. Josh Menendez, a fourth year medical student, finished his month long rotation with us. He is going on to do Neurosurgery and will be an excellent physician one day. Emily Whitty, a UAB nurse practitioner student, started back with us again for her clinical time. She is so wonderful to have and does a great job caring for our patients. Lindsey Pimentel finished working with us. She is starting back her sophmore year at Samford. I was sad to see her leave. She has been such a huge help to me and she is bilingual so she has helped me take very good care of our hispanic patients. I scheduled a hispanic patient for Wednesday next week and realized the Lindsey won’t be there and I just looked at her and said “What am I going to do?” She is going to come in and translate for me that day. If you know of anyone that is bilingual and has time, we desparately need a spanish interpretor. I also am going to have a Samford nurse practitioner student that is going to start a clinical rotation with me some time soon. So, alot of movement and change this week but it has been good.
Now, I am sitting in a Hampton Inn in Nashville. One of my roommates from Nashville who is also a very good friend, is having a baby shower here this weekend. It is so exciting! There were four of us that lived together here. Now everyone is married and only one of us still lives in Nashville. The last time we were all together was several years ago for one of their weddings. We are going to get to hang out together all day today! I will definately post some pictures soon.
Fortunately, after this weekend, my life will slow down again and settle back in to “normal.” I am ready to slow down a bit but this has been a great summer.
Much love my friends! ( . . . and another one from Cali :)
