Live Life the Fullest

Don't let anything hold you back in your pursuit to live life to the fullest. You want to experience everything and anything (well except maybe eating insects, flydiving, going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or other really weird things). Get out there and do as many as many things as you can.

I think I want to say that I don't think you need to constantly push yourself to do something every minute. Sometimes you need to sit there and appreciate what you just accomplished. You should also share your experiences with others who might benefit from what you have done.

Do not let your health hold you back. Okay, if you break your leg or blow out your knee, you can put off climbing Kilimanjaro until it is healed.

I had always wanted to spend a semester or school year in Europe studying during college. Even though I was treated for thyroid cancer in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, I still went to France for my spring semester of my junior year. I brought several bottles of my thyroid replacement medication and information on how and who to contact at the American College in Paris in case I needed medical care and set off. You have to remember this was before fax machines, cell phones, and the internet so the only way to contact the US from Europe was by slow air mail or very expensive international calls. My health wasn't going to stop me.

Since then I have traveled far and wide. I have been to Europe and Japan. I have been to events all over. I have climbed mountains. I have skied. I have done lots of things. I had a lot of fun (getting my body into the shape it is now).

Every so often I run into someone who is out there living life as full as they can. Claire Wineland is one of those people. I would love to meet her someday but for now I will continue to read about her and follow her. This article starts off with:

"As a small child, she played hide-and-seek with nurses, ripped out IVs to race around the hospital floor naked and left an explosion of glitter in her wake.

As a teen, she got boys to carry her uphill when she was tired, taught her best friend how to flirt and watched her doctor squirm as he gave her the safe-sex talk.

And as an adult, Claire Wineland has continued living out loud, even as her body fails her.
Claire, 20, has cystic fibrosis, a genetic and terminal progressive disease that's landed her in the hospital for a quarter of her life. Ask what's on her bucket list, and she'll say she doesn't have one.
Fixating on a checklist of goals before she goes "sounds exhausting," she says, especially "when you've been dying your whole life." Instead, she'd rather focus on doing all she can in each moment."

She also has written a book (but not one about a happy sick person), heads a foundation, and makes videos among other things. One of the videos I do like is 'Dying 101':

Get moving and fulfill your dreams!

Waiting Around

I hate waiting. I pride myself on being on time. I think that people who constantly run late are rude and selfish because they are making people wait on them. They are not considering anyone else's feelings or needs. Basically that is just damn rude.

Social occasions aside, waiting for doctors is even worse. Especially when you are not feeling well. This is one reason why I do not like Emergency Rooms and will only go if I am literally dripping blood (and will therefore be put to the front of the line) is I can't stand waiting around.

A year or so ago, my opthamologist asked me to find a new one. Basically I got fired by my eye doctor because I dared to complain about waiting so long and not being a good patient. I was pissed off about waiting and decided to complain on Yelp.

In comparison the hospital I go to has had a policy for a long time that patients should not be kept waiting more than 15 minutes. I had a doctor in the 1980s who had a sign on her office door that said "Patients Should Not Be Kept Waiting For More Than 15 Minutes". Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't.

In recent years it has gotten even better. Some departments which seem to run late often keep white boards posted in the waiting rooms telling you about doctors who are running being. All departments when you check in usually tell you if a doctor is running behind. And they have signs in the waiting rooms encouraging you to ask if your doctor is running behind if you are kept waiting more than 15 minutes past your scheduled time.

I love this policy. I love being kept on top of how long it will be.

I just read an article this morning about how some other Boston area hospitals are finally understanding the importance of not keeping patients waiting. Their reason? Patients are finally speaking out on social media on being kept waiting.

If you are a patient at the 'holy hospital of the best doctors in five hundred miles' you are supposed to sit quietly and wait to see the doctor who is going to cure you of everything quietly for hours and hours. I think that's crap. Social media is putting pressure on them to finally act. How nice.

As a patient, I say 'speak up on social media' to pressure your medical center to treat you as a patient who is a person as well, instead of being a patient patient.

Respect

Here's an interesting theory, respect in the medical profession. And being respectful of others. Think of it this way. Happy patients are one's who are treated with respect by workers who are treated with respect by management who treats them with respect.

A patient who is happy is one who is not kept waiting, who is involved in decisions, is spoken to nicely by workers who are not arrogant or overtired. Workers who are happy are not overworked or treated badly by management.They are also more inclined to follow standard protocols such as washing hands between patients. And they are less likely to be injured on the job.

That is one part of it and here's another. Doctors need to treat patients and other medical staff with respect. They can't be allowed arrogance that the word is superior to that of others. However doctors are not taught to be team players but to function individually and make impactful decisions.

I did not come up with this concept but I am very impressed by it. This is take from an article on Dr Lucien Leape. I agree with a lot of what he says.

I also agree with the concept of respect in the rest of our lives. Just think if everyone was a bit more respectful overall, we would all be a bit happier.