My baby boy turned one yesterday. I cannot believe it.
He was celebrated all weekend with both sets of grandparents. We threw him a party with a cadre of our friends and their kids. We are hoping for a love connection with him and the littlest attendee, and his big sister had fun in a pack of 2.5-3yo girls running wild.
I took the day off for his real bday, so he could have some fun without big sister calling the shots….and speaking of shots…he got those today in further celebration of his first year on earth.
He is such a special little boy. He’s so smiley. He rarely cries. And he LOVES to cuddle. I’ll miss that when he’s older. I only get him for 17 more years (and his sister for 15.5), and I want to make this time count.
So that brings me to my other update. I finally reached onederland myself. On his 1st birthday (my goal date), I weighed in at 199.7 pounds. My first time under 200 since before his sister was born. So yesterday was a milestone for many reasons.
(Ignore the nasty toenails)
I’ve been using this as my “short term” goal for so long, I have no idea what to shoot for now in the short term.
(What do I tell my Fitbit to count down to now?)
I’ve also earned myself a trip to Vegas via weight loss since the last update. Well, not totally. I did a bunch of the healthy wage 6% weight loss challenges and made my goal weight, so they are gonna pay out enough money for me to go to Vegas. I just have to find a time that works with work, kids, husband, etc. Yay!
I’ve tried to keep info about this close to my chest. I’ve only told my husband, my trainer, and bits and pieces to people who noticed the loss and asked. But when I hit onederland on my one year old’s bday, I just had to post here to share the good news.
No, I’m not talking about the weather. I live in Sunny San Antonio, and I wore capri pants and no jacket to work today–comfortably. (Jealous anyone from up north?)
I’m talking about the eternal winter cold that comes with having 2 kids in daycare. At least one person has been ill in our household since November. Things have really picked up in January with GI bugs (yes plural), colds, ear infections, etc. I spent today in a Dayquil and pseudoephedrine haze–and I STILL can’t breath through my nose.
If Oprah was in the Powers Household Right Now….
At the beginning of the month, I hadn’t updated the blog due to the impending Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) deadline. I spent all of my time (staying at work until midnight or later, even on weekends), writing for the GACA. I even brought my sick little guy with me to work on the submission day because he had an ear infection, his daddy was out of town for work, and daycare wouldn’t take him until his fever broke. I now feel compelled to write a post here just because it has been so long, but my mucus addled brain is not cooperating.
So instead, I’ll just post a picture that I put together several years ago from images I found on the internet. It was a connection my brain immediately made when I saw the T-Rex meme for the first time, but I couldn’t find a pre-made version of it anywhere. The T-Rex/walker analogy could also be extended to hearing aids/personal sound amplifying devices, low vision rehabilitation/tools, appropriate medication management, caregiver burnout, or any treatment for a geriatric syndrome. (My mind went to the first two examples immediately because my GACA proposal focuses on acquired sensory impairment in older adults. If I get it, there WILL be a “pocket-talker” version of this meme coming. Fingers crossed!)
If all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail. Geriatricians have the full toolbox at their disposal. We help make our patients, Unstoppable!
For those of you who are reading for the geriatrics portion of this blog, I apologize. This is going to be yet another post dedicated to the “Fat” part of my name. I’m currently working on a Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) grant, so all of my geriatrics writing is being funneled into that effort. If I get it, it will give me fodder for many more geriatrics posts.
I had a fabulous experience this weekend that I need to share. After only a month with the trainer, I have started to see benefits! No, not on the scale (that damn thing keeps going up), but in the most important part–my function!
We live 10-15 minutes from Sea World San Antonio, and as such, have season passes. They are advertising having over 9 million lights up for the holidays. And that actually seems accurate. It is beautiful. December in San Antonio is the perfect weather for the park–60s-70s outside during the day, and crisp and cool (requiring a light jacket) at night. We have taken our 2 year old and our 8 month old every weekend this month.
For those of you unacquainted with Sea World, it has a lot of shows. You wander through the park grounds and see a few exhibits as a way to break up the shows. There is a place for preschool/early elementary kids that has a Sesame Street theme with a large playground, splash pad (that is still operational in December–but mostly unused), and costumed characters performing on a stage/walking around.
This weekend was the first time that my daughter partook in the rides. She rode the carousel twice on “the blue one” (horse). She also rode a fairly advanced ride (pictured below) that spun around, went up and down, and back and forth. We walked past it several times, and each time she consistently asked to ride it. She even stood patiently in line during 5 or 6 runs of the ride before it was her turn to get on. She watched with intensity while asking questions about taking turns. When she finally rode it, she laughed with delight the entire time.
She was then distracted by what I can only describe as a rave for preschoolers. The sun had just gone down. The Christmas lights were shining everywhere, and the main Sesame Street stage was blasting Christmas music, spraying bubbles/snow into the crowd, and characters were dancing in the street. She was a little unsure of the dancing Cookie Monster, Elmo, Count, etc., so I held her as we danced together.
Imagine this, at nighttime, with lights, a bigger crowd, and snow/bubbles
We had been on our way to a show called Pets Ahoy, where trained puppies, kitties, ducks, pigs, birds, etc perform tricks for 30 minutes. She had seen it once already on another visit. When she found out we were going to Sea World again, the puppies were what got her the most excited. So I was kinda shocked when she asked to stop at the Sesame Street show while we were walking to the puppy show. But it was a rave for preschoolers, so lets be real. I was distracted too.
All of the sudden, my husband, who had gone ahead to wait in line with our 8 month old, texted me. It said one word–“HURRY!”
I knew we had to go fast. Once they hit capacity, she would not be able to get in to see the puppies. It was going to be the last show of the night, and she would be heartbroken if she missed it.
I didn’t record this, and you don’t have to watch the whole thing–but check out a snippet and see why a 2 yo would think this is MAGICAL!
So, I did my best to get her away from the kiddie rave. Once we broke free from the dance party crowd, I started running while still carrying her. I told her we were heading to the puppies and cats, and that we had to hurry. We laughed saying “hurry, faster, hurry!” the whole way to the show. We got there in time, and met up with my husband and son right before they opened the doors to the theater. We were some of the last to get in. And we had fun the whole way there.
And, once things calmed down, and we reached our seats, I realized something magical had just happened. I ran at a decent pace for about a quarter of a mile while carrying a nearly 30 pound toddler and talking/laughing. I didn’t get winded. I didn’t feel like I had to sit down or take it easy afterwards. I just kept going and having fun.
This is why I am working out. For more magical moments like this with my kids. If one month of exercise can yield a magical moment like that, I can’t wait what to see what a whole new lifestyle can do.
In the medical quality improvement literature literature, there is acknowledgement of a phenomenon called “Alert Fatigue.”
I’ll give you the wikipedia definition: Alarm fatigue or alert fatigue occurs when one is exposed to a large number of frequent alarms (alerts) and consequently becomes desensitized to them. Desensitization can lead to longer response times or missing important alarms.
I believe my life is currently a series of alert fatigue for different kinds of alarms/alerts. And today, dear readers, I am going to rant about alert fatigue with text messages.
To get started, I will out myself as the Xennial/Oregon Trail Generation member that I am. I’m in that awkward group that is too young to be Gen X and too old to be a millennial. We are a microgeneration defined by growing up as technology grew up. One of the coolest days in my childhood was when I got this phone:
Swatch Twin Phone–two people could talk at once, y’all!
And the most fun thing I did in elementary school was play the original, green screen version of The Oregon Trail. Our teachers were fairly convinced the new “computer lab” was just a fad.
Facebook didn’t come out until the year after I graduated from college. The iPhone didn’t come out until I was in my clerkship year of med school.
Because I grew up with the evolution of communications technology, I feel like I’ve also grown up with the evolution of spam.
1st it was by snail mail. And people slowly stopped using snail mail socially.
2nd it was by telephone. And people slowly stopped calling on the phone socially.
3rd it was by email. And people slowly stopped writing emails socially.
Now it is by text.
Video-chatting seems to be the next wave of communication. Will that be the next wave of spam too?
I get multiple spam texts a day. It was worse during the election season. At any given time I have unread texts in the double digits on my phone. I used to love texts. I’m a self-admitted introvert. Picking up the phone to talk to someone (even just to order a pizza) still gives me palpitations. I once thought texts were awesome. Let me tell you know why I now HATE THEM.
People try to communicate ideas that are too complex via text. If we have to exchange more than 1-2 texts to get an idea across it should be an email (if non-urgent) or a phone call (if urgent).
People expect immediate responses from text messages. This used to be acceptable when you got 1-5 texts a day total. But my phone is dinging multiple times an hour. Some texts are important. Others are the Japanese restaurant I ordered from once in Pittsburgh telling me they are having a special. Due to alert fatigue, I now pretty much ignore them all.
People text you to try and arrange a time for a phone call? WTF is this about? If it isn’t arranging a group call (aka herding cats), you both already have your phones in your hand. Just dial the number and speak. If the person can’t talk they won’t answer and they will call you back. (This has to be a product of the Xennial in my who is still delighted by my old swatch twin phone and answering machines).
I can’t remember the last time someone called me to talk about anything non-work related. The only non-work phone calls I get now are appointment reminders and obvious spam (so I don’t even pick up the phone). But when a real person calls me (like once every 6 months), I pay much more attention to it than to a text, email, or social media message. I’m generally convinced when someone calls me socially and unexpectedly, they are calling because someone died. Unannounced phone calls seem to have been elevated to that level of importance communication wise.
Am I just a jaded, stressed out, introverted, aging Xennial? Or are other people as fatigued by all of the unimportant “alerts” via text message/smart phone in their life too? Maybe not…a lot of people now strap the things to their arms in the form of smart watches.
A few weeks ago, I got to live the dream. I was invited by a fellow geriatrician to a screening of one of my favorite movies ever. We even got to meet the cast!
Pedro, Fellow Geriatrician, Napoleon, Me, Deb
That’s right–we saw Napoleon Dynamite!
Besides being a hysterical movie, Napoleon Dynamite has some cool lessons about aging. I will enlighten you on 3 of those lessons here.
What? How am I going to turn a discussion about Napoleon Dynamite into a geriatrics post? WATCH ME!
I’m going to assume many of you have seen the movie–but for those of you who haven’t here is a quick run down.
Napoleon Dynamite is in high school in a small town in Idaho. He lives with his 32 year old brother named Kip and his grandmother. He is insanely and endearingly awkward. He makes friends with the new kid at school–Pedro, and has a crush on an awkward girl–Deb, who tries to sell him boondoggle keychains while raising money for college. His grandmother suffers an injury, and asks her son, “Uncle Rico” to come and look after Napoleon and Kip. Uncle Rico is obsessed with “the ’82,” and trying to take State in Football. Kip is an internet geek, who meets and falls in love with LaFawnDuh online–eventually marrying her. Napoleon, Pedro, and Deb become friends while Pedro runs for school president. Napoleon draws ligers, is pretty good with a bowstaff, and dances Pedro into the presidency. There is more to it–or not really. If you haven’t seen it, you need to.
Geriatrics lesson #1 from Napoleon Dynamite: Older people still have lives. Those lives may surprise you. Napoleon’s grandmother goes 4-wheeling in the sand dunes with her boyfriend, and injures herself. Just because someone is older–don’t count them out for anything.
Geriatrics lesson #2 from Napoleon Dynamite: Caregivers generally fall into that role because nobody else will do it. Uncle Rico doesn’t have to care for the injured older adult. He has to care for a 32 year old man-boy, and a high-school kid. He is not happy to be in the role, but steps up anyway.
Geriatrics lesson #3 from Napoleon Dynamite: Caregivers may not be any more competent or cognitively intact than the person they are caring for. Again–see Uncle Rico. He is so obsessed with “the ’82” he has Kip buy him a time machine online. He truly believes it will work, but the only thing the time machine does is electrocute his private parts. Napoleon finds it and does the same. He gets Kip into a pyramid scheme, and knocks Napoleon off his bike with a steak.
Here’s an extra one for you
Geriatrics lesson #4 from Napoleon Dynamite: DANCE!!!
Original Dance from Napoleon Dynamite
14 Years Later…
Reminds me of another famous dancer…
Keep moving and dancing, y’all! Until next time from your favorite Fat Geriatrician!
Fat Geriatrician 