Category Archives: Social Support

With Years Come Wisdom, Guest Post by Joe Gardewin

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Our recent guest post on aging inspired yet another guest post, this one by long-term reader Joe Gardewin. I hope his words inspire you as much as they inspired me!

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Dear Doc Roxanne, 

I may not be an expert on aging but, at 78, I do consider myself aged or, as my friend, Tom Isern, says, “seasoned.” In other words, most of my life is in my rearview mirror. Ha! That is not a bad thing, because I’ve had a pretty full life. But I do hope to live for a while yet and, in all honesty, I think I will. I think that, in part, because I have a good family doc who has now followed me for 20 years. In her words I am “… not the patient I worry about most.” 

These are my thoughts on [hopefully] living a long, healthy life:  Continue reading →

Standing Together As A Family

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Years ago, while caring for adults in a suburban internal medicine practice, I began to observe an interesting phenomenon. At the time, it was not unusual for my patients to bring along their children or grandchildren, fresh from a prior pediatric appointment just across the hall. Beautiful, bright-faced, chubby, usually well-behaved children. Their pediatricians’ well-intended recommendations on reducing rates of weight gain consisted of the standard, usually unsuccessful, content. My patients’ expressions told me that the advice was tiresome and frustrating. If they knew how to fix this problem, they told me, they already would have.  Continue reading →