Health is Wealth

  No one likes to be challenged out of their 'comfort zone'. You know - the place where you know you will succeed. Please note that I am not talking about real safety. There is a HUGE difference between challenging yourself to do something you are worried you will fail at, and putting yourself at risk of harm. I am not a 'risk-taker' by any means. I hate roller-coasters. I despise scary movies. I don't speed through yellow lights hoping to pass through. At the same time, I'm not superstitious. I will take some risks if I think that they are reasonable. I will apply for positions that I am not sure I will get. I will try drawing something that I have never tried before. I will (cautiously!) try new yoga positions to test my balance. At the same time, I very much dislike getting out of my comfort zone in certain situations. For example, I applied to a position a while ago, feeling nervous that I would not get it. I mean, how awful would it be if I did NOT get it? ...

Death is always a difficult topic to discuss - whether we are mourning someone in our own lives, or trying to comfort others who have lost someone. Even if death is 'expected' - as in, someone is ill and we expect them to pass shortly - it is always 'unexpected'. We do not know exactly when someone will pass away, and it always feels 'too soon'. As a doctor, I have faced death on multiple occasions - both in my personal life and in my professional life. Episode 3  of my podcast discusses this is more detail.  I am by no means a grief counsellor...but as a human being and professional who has had to comfort others - and myself - in situations of loss, here are some pearls I have gleamed.  1) When death occurs, acknowledge that is has happened. It is natural to go through some stages of grief, including denial, bargaining, acceptance, etc. Ross and Kessler  describe these in more detail. Essentially, it is okay if you cannot yet 'handle' the fact that some...

I am really blessed and excited to announce that I have a new podcast - 3P (Pills, Pearls, and Patients). You can listen to episodes and subscribe  here . 3P is made possible by Health Plexus. Their team approached me with the idea that many patients and healthcare providers don't always get access into what it is like to be a family doctor. And I agree. As family physicians, we see a little bit about everything! As patients, you may have questions about your healthcare, want to learn more about how to communicate with your doctor, and so forth.3P is primarily aimed towards healthcare providers - many episodes do discuss approaches to medical conditions. However, patients can benefit as well. In this podcast, I discuss communication tips, resources, strategies to manage conditions (ranging from physical ailments like diabetes to mental concerns like anxiety).  I love recording this podcast! I purposely don't edit out many parts to show listeners that 'things don't have ...

Two weeks ago, we had quite a rough storm in the GTA. The rain was quite hard, as was the wind. It was powerful enough to knock out power, phone lines, and trees. The damage that was sustained was incredible.  People were impacted in different ways. Some homes lost power for 3 or more days, while others had trees crash down on their cars and roofs. Sadly, ten people actually lost their lives to the storm. I was fortunate enough not to lose power at my home, although we were without internet access at work. This was incredibly frustrating! A phone pole went down, so we could not call patients, access our EMR, fax, and more. You can imagine how this slowed down work. It was difficult for us as physicians, but also for patients. We managed and did our best - but in the end of the day, the power outage was just plain annoying. As a group, we tried to manage as best as we could. Thankfully, we have a great team at our clinic, so we were able to make do with what we could. This meant usi...