Health care in coming years

I am very fortunate in this economy to have a job and health insurance. Many people in this world are not as fortunate. Health care and prescription coverage costs have gone through the roof. Our President wants the congress to have a resolution on his desk ready to sign by August. I have heard it said many times that doctors make way too much money... and charge way too much for their services. Working in the healthcare industry however, I have a much different view. Yes, doctors make a decent living, and I will never make what they make... but I also did not invest up to 15 years of life learning and training to be a physician. I am not on call all through the night, and I don't work the 70-80 hours that I have seen my physicians work. I do not have the student loans to repay that could be astronomical. I do not have to face the high malpractice premiums that physicians have to pay. Being a manager, I see the overhead costs, the decrease in reimbursement, and the many hoops insurance companies make us jump through to get authorization for services we provide. The company that I work for is meeting tonight to decide whether or not to merge with a local hospital. One thing is for certain... things are going to change. I wish I had the answer to our healthcare issues. I would love to see everyone in this world have the same opportunities at healthcare, but with that comes a price tag. I don't think the answer is socialized medicine. I believe the quality of our healthcare would definitely suffer. Its going to take a lot of give and take... our physicians are already seeing decreased reimbursement and increases in the cost of doing business, and like I've heard many times before... there are no new dollars in healthcare. I believe that each of us are going to have to take a more proactive approach to our healthcare. We are going to have to pay more for our medical care, and we need to take better care of ourselves to prevent future disease and costly prescriptions. Just like technology is constantly changing... we are going to be seeing many changes in healthcare. Lets just hope we go in the right direction. Some of the alternatives could be very scary!!

Today's Chapter of my Life

I heard a song this morning about the living the legacy I will leave, and how I live my life each day writes the chapters of my life. This song really touched my heart. I can sweat the small stuff, let work drive me crazy, or get upset and mad over things that really will not make in a difference in the next day, week, month or years of life... or I can embrace each day and make a difference in the lives of those I come in touch with each and every day.

I am going to remind myself each day that I am writing the chapters of life. I cannot even recall what I might have been upset about at work last week, or the things I worried about... each day brings with itself a whole new set of problems... but how I handle myself will speak volumes about how I lived my life.

So.. tomorrow is a new chapter... I wonder what wonderful adventure awaits me.

Great Weekend!

I had a great weekend. Its seems like most weekends fly by and and not much gets accomplished... but this weekend was fun from start to finish. Since I worked something like 50 hours this week, I left work at 1:30 on Friday afternoon, came home and watched a movie with the house to myself. Friday night we went to a coffee house with friends to hear the Brian Criner Band. Brian is one of the most talented guitar players I have ever heard, and he has the most awesome voice. I'm convinced one day they will be discovered and be famous. It was lots of fun packing out the coffee house and watching them play. After that we went to San Marcos for amazing nachos with some great friends. On the way home Friday night it was storming like crazy, got home to no power, so we lit some candles and listened to the radio. A little rough sleeping, but the power came on around 2:00am, so the whole night was not wasted. Saturday I tackled my clothes closet. I have so many clothes that are either too big, or I just don't wear. 5 garbage bags later, my closet is organized and I found lots of clothes I forgot I had, and feel like I have a new wardrobe. I had clothes I had outgrown, but since I have lost some of weight, I can fit in them again, so yay... bonus. I have lots of clothes and some shoes to take to Goodwill. Saturday night Katie took us out for dinner for Father's day, and then after that we went to Glen and Jenn's for drinks and bonfire. The night was perfect for a bonfire. Sunday Katie left for North Carolina for training, Gordie went golfing with Joe, and I rode my scooter to church. When Gordie got home from golfing, we took the scooters and rode to Sonic for lunch, then went for a long ride around Gun Lake and out in the country. It was a beautiful day. We stopped at my brother Jim's house and visited with Jim and Pat for awhile, then rode home. It was just a great weekend all around. Now... I'm heading to the kitchen for Hudsonville Ice Cream - Grand Traverse Cherry Fudge. Yum... life is good!

Interesting Lab Results

I saw my OB/GYN doc a few weeks ago for my annual exam. I actually call it my "open house". Anyway... the doc I went to is absolutely fabulous. This was the first time I had gone to her, but I knew her from mmpc, and the stellar reputation she had, so decided to go to see her. Everything was fine from a gynecological point of view, but as she was taking my history of when I had my hysterectomy, and started asking me questions, she became concerned about the fact that I may be developing adult onset diabetes. This is the one disease that I never wanted to hear I could have. My grandmother had diabetes, my brother has diabetes, and I am an all time carboholic...a big no-no for someone with diabetes. What triggered my doctor's concerns were a few things. When I was 30 I had a hysterectomy with both ovaries removed. My ovaries were removed because of "polycystic Ovaries".... several cysts covering my ovaries. Apparently polycystic ovary disease is related to diabetes. She also noticed a darkening of my skin around my neck, in my arm pits, and few other places, which is also a sign of diabetes. I shared with her my struggle with my weight and the fact that I really do try to eat well, I do go to the gym, and I work really hard, but just do not see the results, get discouraged and just chuck the whole diet thing... and then I will get motivated again, and start this crazy process all over... each time losing and gaining. Her thoughts on the matter were instead of my body turning the food into energy, it was storing it and turning it into fat, something to do with being "insulin resistant". So... she wanted me to have a 2 hour fasting glucose tolerance test. I did the test a few days later, and that was wierd. I had labs drawn, and then had to drink a glass of this really sweet stuff. Since my office is right next to our lab, I just told the lab gals I was going to my office to work. the first 30 minutes or so, I was running all over the place... quite the sugar high, and then I crashed. I decided I had better sit down and behave myself. I then had to have my labs drawn again, two more times. It had been a week or so since my labs, and I have been so busy at work, I kind of forgot about things until yesterday. I had been out of my office most of the day in meetings, so when I was checking my phone messages, there was a message from my doctor. She said, I have your lab results, and they are "interesting". I thought to myself... I don't know if I like interesting. She wanted me to page her when I got in. So I paged her and waited for her call. Basically my fasting blood sugar was normal, but on the high side of normal, my 2 hour blood sugar, while still normal, was 127, and they consider 140 as diabetic. What was interesting was the fact that my insulin resistance level was 23, the normal was 0-17. With my history, and the all the things we talked about at my gyn exam, this points to me being pre-diabetic. Wonderful. That one disease I never wanted to hear I have, is knocking on my door. So now I have to make an appt to see my PCP about what to do about this. A couple good things... I know about this early so I can do something about it, and the fact that she really feels treating this with medication will help me to get my weight off. I know diabetes effects your heart, your eyes, your circulation, and just about every organ in your body, so I definitely want to get things under control now before it becomes full blown diabetes. Guess I should count myself lucky that I had an awesome physician who had the forsight to check this now.

The IT Factor

Tonight I attended a dinner meeting for In-Forum, and professional women's group in Grand Rapids. The women there were very nice, but they all had one thing in common... they are climbing the corporate ladder, and had what I call, "its all about ME syndrome". The facilitator for our table lead a discussion about how important the way we dress portrays our "IT" factor. I was probably one of the oldest at our table of 8, but as I listed to these 20-30 somethings talk about how to dress "two levels up" of where you want to be, how to rub shoulders with the "important" people in your company, and how to present yourself to get ahead and stand out above your peers. I do agree, how you present yourself at work is important, and that you should always look your best, but nothing beats working hard and being a trustworthy employee. I know I do not have the most contemporary, or nicest wardrobe, I may not rub elbows with the "important - elite" of my coporation, but I did not get where I am today by "butt kissing" or spending big $$$ on my wardrobe. I achieved where I am by working hard, being honest, and truly caring about my co-workers. Its not about ME, but what I can do to make my office and mmpc successful. Its all about our patients, and care and customer service they receive. As I listened to the conversation around me, I admit I could be more confident in my appearance, and I strive to do that, but to me, at the end of the day what counts is not how high I have climbed that ladder, but that I gave my best and cared about those around me.

Crazy Busy Life!

I just got back from a brisk morning walk - 50 degrees out at 6:00am, but the cold air felt good. My life at work is so busy. My supervisor had her baby, a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Gray. I am so happy that mom and baby are doing well. Lauren will not be back to work until August 3rd... its going to be a LONG summer for sure! I am rather stressed at work right now, which is not good. I do love my job, and can't imagine myself doing anything else. My other supervisor has been doing a great job helping me... but she still has to do her job as an echo tech, and I am really feeling stretched right now. We have our next phase of Epic coming - and I'm not sure we are ready, or if the Epic team is even ready for this to happen. On top of everything, we are having issues with the Radiant portion of our EMR - between transcription issues, charges not dropping or going to the insurance properly, and just taking care of the many, many day to day issues that come across a manager's desk... its enough to make a grown woman cry. I worked 12 hours yesterday, but plan to leave by 3:30 today. Thank goodness for the weekends. But... enough bellyaching about my job.. I have one, which in this day and age, is a good thing. I am very thankful for everything I have, and I never take my job for granted. Hopefully next week will be a better week.

Its been awhile!

Boy... its been awhile since I posted anything on my blog. Guess my life has been very busy... not much exciting has been happening in my life other than work. So, I have not been to the Y for almost a month. The week before vacation was crazy busy, then we were gone a week, the week after we got back Gordie was in LA, so I had to get home to let our dog out, and this past week was crazy busy again with meetings every night. My clerical supervisor is almost ready to have her baby, and me getting to the gym AFTER work is getting to be ridiculous, so I spent the money and joined a gym near my house. As a matter of fact, I can walk there it is so close. I had my first workout this morning at 6:00am. I am very excited about this. I really want to get in shape.... lose weight and feel fabulous.... but working out after working 10-11 hour days, in the summertime.... well lets just say, I doubt I was going to be able to stick with it. I can easily go in a little later in the morning, unless I have early morning meetings - which do happen at least once a week, but for the most part - I can work out at 6:00, come home shower, eat some breakfast, and still get to work by around 8:30ish. So here we go again. One of these days I will get it right!