first anniversary

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

here is the posting from one year ago titled 

last day thanks

it has been my most read blog-it was posted the same 

week with 

neurology visit

one year ago was my last day to practice medicine

i had tried to get everything in order that day because

i knew i wouldnt be back but no one else knew

although one person did come up to me that day and

said 

youre not coming back are you

i had slowed my practice down some by trying not to see

new patients and by not seeing as many every day

i also had been trying to catch everyone i could up on 

their medicines for refills until they could get in to see

some one else

i even did a well child check after hours my last day so that

i could get the check up done for one of the employees

am sure she suspected something was up

i didnt want to stop practicing until i had a definitive answer

even though i knew what was going to happen

i left abruptly 

i was there one day and the next i was gone

once i got the official diagnosis and recommendation for

treatment the decision was easy for me

i had already decided years before that if i were to develop 

early problems that i would stop practicing medicine

so thats what i did and i havent looked back at all

in medicine there is a motto do no harm 

so thats what i wanted to follow

would never forgive myself if i had continued to practice and 

had made a mistake that harmed someone

i have had a busy year

my son was married so that kept us busy with all the events 

associated with that wedding

(told my younger son he that he would have to go to las vegas

to get married when his time came)

i had planned on retiring in 3 years and had programmed things to 

do when i retired

i just started doing them 3 years before i had planned on doing them 

luckily i had a disability plan that covers me until i reach social 

security retirement age-66

it was a battle to get them to pay off but after 6 months they

approved the claim but not untilafter a grueling 8 hour neuropsychological

exam ordered by the insurance company 

slept good that night felt like i had ran a marathon

i stay busy with this blog as it takes 3-4 hours of my time each day 

to research write respond to comments, emails, face book messages etc

this blog has grown over 5 times its volume in the last year

i am in the adni-2 study at ut southwestern alzheimers research center 

and have had to go up there for the study and my neurology visits

frequently this year-logged over 4000 miles traveling

at $0.23 per miles thats $920 i was able to send in to my flex 

account for reimbursement this year for medical travel

i was in 2 short studies there also-one a videoconference for

doing remote neuropsychological exams and the other a video 

that shows medical students and residents how to do a neurological

evaluation and how to do the mental evaluation test called the moca

two article were written about my story and what happened to me

those are easily access on the upper right side of this blog

one article written by mary roser from the austin american statesman

was picked up by the ap news and by mulitple newspapers and

online news services across the us and canada and europe and india

our team the organicgreendoctor.com for the walk to end alzheimers

was one of the most successful teams in the walk this year

we raised the most money and had the most members of an 

individual group

got the plaque for that in the mail yesterday

i gave a talk to a group in lousianna on my story, alzheimers, and on 

organic gardening

i also gave a talk on this-alzheimers not organic gardening- to a large 

group of family doctors recently 

they asked lots of questions

hopefully they will use what we talked about in their own practices and 

will do more evaluations hopefully earlier on their patients instead of 

referring them all 

so ive been busy this last year

and occasionally reflect back over the year and 

realize that it has been a productive one 

maybe i reached more people with this blog and the talks and the

news stories than when i was practicing 

do i miss it 

yes

i miss the interactions with my patients

felt like i did a good job

luckily with face book and twitter and with this blog i have 

kept in contact with a large number of them 

what do i have planned next year

i plan to do more talks on alzheimers

(in fact contact me if you would like a 30-45 minute talk on alzheimers

to your group)

i will continue to do this blog

i will be starting doing habitat for humanity building projects in january 

have always wanted to do that

we have several trips scheduled this year to places we havent been

and frequent trips to see our two sons in san francisco

i will continue to exercise daily-have starting seeking out local hiking

trails to walk regularly 

i will continue to be involved in the adni study this year

no spinal tap this year thank goodness but still have to do those dang

neuropsych exams but only once this year

i will continue to do my organic gardening all year long

part of our christmas dinner will be out of our garden

i will continue to blog on organic green stuff 

and to make my wife she happy i will

continue to be a good house keeper

a good cook

a good shopper

a good travel agent

a good lover

a good husband

so overall not a bad year considering that i didnt plan all this

to happen this way 

just hope this year will go as well

and things will not progress this year

(there appears to not have been progression on neuropsych exams

this year)

keep in touch for year two

the organicgreen doctor