From the heart and around the world

This is a very personal post from me today, and I write to you while flying 36,000 feet over Greenland on my way back from Iceland. I’m going home on New Year’s Eve, ready to start a New Year. A New Year I actually get to have, thankfully.

It is no secret that 2022 was a hard year for me. I lost a very important election. After over a decade of dedicated service to my professional organization, the #AmericanAcademyofFamilyPhysicians, and having won a seat on the Board of Directors, and after 3 years of grueling service during Covid at a time that our organization was facing both logistical and financial challenges, I thought our organization was ready for my bold (and, yes, sometimes arrogant) style of leadership. A challenge. Someone who would call it out, say what needed to be said, fight the fight instead of simply toeing the line. Crossing the line, sometimes. When it was necessary. When it was a certainty that the win was important and a loss was unacceptable. I have fought this fight many times—in business, as an entrepreneur. 3 branch offices. 4 commercial properties. 3 banks. 3 lawyers. 2 consultants. All on my family’s back—and it worked. I created a unique, medical-behavioral integrated private practice, the only one of its kind, in Arizona and was able to get the contracts with insurances.

I fought our State Governor on his plans for Covid management, public health interventions, and the immunization distribution model. I was called to the Principal’s office. And with some important negotiation, compromise, and challenges, we crafted a means of getting vaccines to the population that couldn’t make it to supersites. With a Republican Governor. In the 2020’s. Yes, it was possible. With the right people, it’s possible.

Sometimes, the fight needs to be fought. And won.

Sun Tzu’s advice was that the combatant must “seek battle after the victory has been won”. I certainly did that.

But my professional organization, and the delegates representing the states and constituencies, didn’t feel that way. Kenny Lin would likely observe that the organization wasn’t ready for it.

That’s okay.

I found out that year that I had an ascending aortic aneurysm. 4.5cm by that point. After 16-20 cups of coffee while serving 36 hour shifts between the Covid surge team at the hospital and providing care at my own clinics. The bad sleep. The stress. It had all come to a head. My doctor told me I had to change things. So did my wife. So did my family. So did that inner, sane demon inside of me that said it was time to dial it down.

Perhaps it was.

So away went the caffeine. No more. I barely touch the stuff. I reduced my weight, improved my overall health. And began to wind down operations. Sold my Flagstaff branch. Took on a minority partner into my primary practice. My wife was able to retire. Started beta blockers (metoprolol 25mg twice a day) and statins to bring down my LDL that was greater than 200 (pitavastatin 4mg once a day, ezetimibe 10mg once a day).

This year, just a few weeks ago, after maxing out at 4.6cm a couple of years ago, my aneurysm is no longer an aneurysm. The last reading was 4.2cm, and no longer aneurysmal.

My writing is part of this reversal, this healing.

I guess the message is for me at 55, and for everyone at any age, that it’s really never too late to undo damage. Whether it’s physical or mental. I’m still not able to watch #ThePitt, by the way. It’s so good, it’s actually traumatizing for me. My wife insists that I not watch it because she knows what I went through with my shifts at the hospital during Covid. It changed me much like my early days in managing AIDS patients.

It taught me, once again, that every moment is precious. Every single moment! Every morning you wake up, and the sun is peeking through the window, thank whatever deity or genetics or luck you want to, and love your day.

Earlier this year, starting January 25, 2025, we stepped foot off Antarctica. Since then, we’ve been in Santiago, Chile, January 26. Back home, January 28. Morocco, April 3. Amsterdam, (and many other European countries at other dates), Sept 8. And, in January, we will be in Sydney and then Singapore on January 22.

So if you’re keeping track, we will have been on all 7 continents in less than 1 year.

There are greater goals in life than being great in business, being a great leader, or being a great professional.

The most important goals are being great to your family and to yourself. And that’s what I’ve learned through my losses. I’ve gained a greater understanding of what it means to be human. And I do hope it makes me much better at everything else.