470) Gratitude for my Physicians & 2021 Years End Review

January 31, 2021
Tuesday

Preface: If you are like me you may only check people's blogs or writings when the image of them crosses your consciousness.  Or, maybe annually, like I do.  Around this time of the year I get to wondering what my friends, colleagues, and mentors are up to and if I haven't had ongoing contact with them I make it a point to do so during the November-December-January holiday season.

Like many people in my age group (demographic, cohort, comrades, etc) I suspect that the urge to contact people at this time of the year began when we left home to go to college, the military, or anywhere far enough from our parents that we could begin to individuate. We "baby boomers" (now 57 to 75 years old) are living longer than any previous generation and that means we are living with medical baggage that a productive cadre of scientists, medical researchers, doctors, and pharmacists has bestowed upon us to keep us from the inevitable demise we want to postpone.

Year's End Review: This particular post is consolidated from several posts from my newer Blog, Jack's HHT Adventure as follows:

• The holiday cards are finally out: paper cards to relatives with physical addresses only; emails and texts to all the others

• Medical labs, sonograms, and cardiograms completed for the year, and looking pretty good I might add

• And reports from friends who are "going through" their own medical issues

• The report about removing my Fantastic Fistula; that I learned to love over the years of it's use and then as a reminder of my transplant (see post #469) on this blog

And then, of course a listing of kudos & my gratitude for all my docs who have cared so conscientiously for my well-being and health, including

• Russell Krienke 🔆 Austin Regional Clinic
• Joseph Leary 🔆 Austin Regional Clinic
• Charles Moritz 🔆 Austin Kidney Associates (now at Scott & White, Temple)
• John Battaile 🔆 Southwestern Med Center of Dallas ~HHT Center
• Richard Lewis 🔆 St. David's N. Austin Transplant Center (now retired)
• Grady Bruce 🔆 Urology Austin
• Robert Wozniak 🔆 Cardiovascular Specialists of Texas
• Jennifer Wells 🔆 Texas Liver Institute
• Ashvin Baru 🔆 Austin Kidney Associates
• Todd Smith 🔆 Eye Specialists of Texas
• David Nation 🔆 Austin Vascular Surgeons
• Stacia Miles 🔆 Austin Diagnostic Clinic
• Nareej Manchanda 🔆 Associated Neurological Specialists
• Mark Levitan 🔆 Austin Retina Associates
• Delfino Lorenzo 🔆 Austin Regional Clinic
• Vejay Poreddy 🔆 Austin Gastroenterology 

This group is really an amazing team of ardent doctors who have each been an important part of my ongoing medical adventures. Even though I dipped into history to list some of these folks (with the current doctors) , I am reminded (as Liz frequently makes me aware of) just how many medical issues and procedures I had in 2021!  It's been quite a year... and we have done really well, considering how the whole nations has be immersed in the ongoing pandemic that has involved practically every human on the planet!

So it goes!