I Drove 12+ hours to visit my kids in Chicago for the weekend. They finally felt comfortable enough to allow us to visit. I was ecstatic to be able to spend time with my children and grandchildren after such a long Covid related hiatus. I am still missing my children in Israel terribly. As it may be some time until we can see each other. In the interim FaceTime will have to suffice. These are the new times and what we have to deal with. While it was truly an incredible weekend, it’s never enough- I know I’m blessed and grateful as a result, but I wish I could see them every day.
In the office I consider myself somewhat of a techie. Over the years, I work continuously to ensure that we are working on advanced systems. All appointments are through our on line high tech scheduling system. It enables us to easily view our schedule, and modify when necessary, while also allowing patients the freedom to book their own appointments via our web site. It has an automated text and email reminder for all appointments. Additionally, we work off advanced EHR or electronic health records which are HIPPA compliant. Our system allows to easily upload blood work, MRI reports etc that can be viewed easily within the patients’ virtual folder which allows me to flip back to previous treatments just by clicking, so I can see progress that is being made.
Over the years, I have come to the realization that if I am advanced and organized with my day to day systems, it allows me more freedom to focus on patient care. That is a priority to me and I am confident my patients appreciate it.
This weekend was quite the contrary. I felt like I was enacting the expression, “You can’t teach old dog new tricks!” It was as if I had stepped forward into the future, or the Jetson’s as my generation would resonate with! My kids and their Millennial generation love their gadgets! They look for every shortcut and technological advancement to both make things faster, easier and more fun. My daughter talks to Alexa. She asks Alexa to play her music and take care of various minor tasks. I have been told that upon occasion Alexa has been in the news to have recalled conversations in the room. She’s always listening in. After shabbos ended she set her Roomba vacuum cleaner to work. I couldn’t get over how it did a better job weaving in and out of the dining room chair legs than I would have done sweeping.
Since we had eaten healthy food over shabbos, we decided to splurge a little and order in pizza. It’s been a long time since I ate pizza and too be quite frank it unfortunately wasn’t that great. It was disappointing for the famous Chicago pizza. My daughter and son in law started talking about how they were in the mood for Ben and Jerry’s. Mind you it was pouring rain and I couldn’t imagine anyone heading out. They said watch this we’ll just order off this App. It will
be here in less than 15 minutes. This was news to me as even Amazon prime isn’t that fast! So of course we challenged them. I just had to see this. We opened up the App and proceeded to order 3 pints of Ben & Jerry’s. I mean if you are having fun you might as well go all out! We simply did not believe such a timed delivery was even in the realm of possibility. Taking our doubts into consideration, we proceeded to line up 3 different cell phones. One was monitoring the processing and packing of the order, as well as when it was en route to us. A second phone had been setup as a timer and started as soon as we placed the order. A third phone was zoomed into the camera on the Ring doorbell so we could see if anyone pulled up in front of the house, even before they rang the bell. Did I mention that it was literally pouring rain during this time which should have slowed things down? We had so much fun laughing and betting on when they would arrive. Believe it or not our frozen yummy ice creams were delivered in 12 minutes. You heard me correctly that’s 12 minutes. It would have taken longer for me to find an umbrella, drive to the closest store open so late at night and buy it myself!
During those 12 minutes we Googled and did some research on the company. We were able to find out that ‘Go Puff’ was created by two college students seven years ago and now earns over a billion dollars. I was so tempted to order various items just to see if it would come that fast again! However it was now after 11:00 pm, and I was in the middle of a major sugar rush. After all I had just consumed loads of peanut butter, brownies, cookie dough and whatever else is included in those heavenly pints, I figured I had enough and should turn in for the night.
The sugar rush got me thinking about how fast paced our lives are. How automated everything is. Almost anything can be had for a fee, and with great speed. We have become impatient as a result. We expect answers and solutions at the snap of a finger. Similarly to a young child throwing a temper tantrum who wants what he wants, and wants it now!
While Saturday night was definitely some of the most fun I have had lately. Especially considering quarantine, being sick from Covid-19, reopening a practice…enough said. This lead me to look at how this contradicted everything I believe in so strongly, and exercise in my practice every day.
Chinese medicine has been around for over 4000 years because it works! Acupuncture builds on itself and thus needs consistent treatment when beginning treating a new patient. It is nice when a patient has almost immediate improvement. However, the norm is that with a series of treatments, the individual will have long lasting improvement. We all crave instant gratification. However when dealing with the mystery of our Mind: Body connection, as well as both treating and preventing illness, the body is often a conundrum. It has many layers that must be understood and peeled away in order to get to the root of the disease. It is definitely not something that can be ordered up on an App and guaranteed for delivery in under 15 minutes!
My personal lesson over this weekend was pretty black and white. Have fun with the digital age when it’s for simplicity of items and material things. When it comes to your mental and physical well being, be prepared to stay the course. The true magic happens in providing long lasting results. Stay the course when it comes to healing oneself, and you will revel in the results. Enjoy the climb on your wellness journey. You will reap the benefits. The head rush of achieving wellness will last a lot longer than a short but yummy sugar rush!