A Day in the Life of Dr. Joan
Have you ever wondered what, as a physician, I do daily?
How do I plan and get through my day? What does my day entail?
TAKING CARE OF MYSELF
The most important part of my day is in the morning. That is the time I get to take care of myself, first spiritually and then physically.
I take care of myself so that I can go out and take care of others.
10 pm - 4 am: Sleep
Having a good morning or a good day starts from the previous night by getting to bed on time to get an adequate amount of sleep.
It gives my brain and body time to rest and repair itself to do all the things I need to do the next day and do them well. It also helps to keep my cortisol level down, aka stress levels.
Stress, if it remains high continuously, is detrimental to the body.
As mentioned in the ADJ question on sleep from last week, we should be getting approximately 8 hours of sleep. I have not been a great example of that.
Over the past 30 years, I have been sleeping an average of 4 hours a night. It has not been easy taking care of a large family with five kids and working full time.
My situation is a lot different now. I am getting more sleep on average, six hours a night. I most likely will be one of those who will not make 8 hours a night. Anything above 6 hours for me usually will give me a headache, and I tend to feel unwell.
4 - 5:30 am: Devotions
By now, you know that I am a Christian, so the first part of my day goes to the Lord.
After waking up feeling well-rested, I spend time reading the Bible, reflecting in my devotional book, singing, and praying.
I commit my day to the Lord, praying for family and friends, thanking God for who He is, and His provision for me, and those he lays on my heart, including you all who are reading this blog.
Spending time with the Lord gives me the spiritual fuel I need for the day.
5:30 - 6 am: Exercise
Now, it is time to take care of myself physically, first starting with exercise.
As adults, we all need to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
I get bored quickly doing the same thing over and over again, so I do a variety of different things. It keeps me interested in exercising.
I use an app called Daily Burn. Here I can get group exercises, barre, yoga, Pilates, dance, strength training, and aerobics.
Exercising helps release endorphins (chemicals from our brains), making us feel good/happier, increasing our immune response, and regulating our appetite.
Exercise helps with strengthening all the muscles of our body, including our heart. It also increases our flexibility and endurance, reduces our stress, and helps us maintain or lose weight.
6 - 7 am: Breakfast
The second thing I do for my physical health is to make sure I eat.
Breakfast is the most important meal of my day.
Most of us tend to skip breakfast, which I believe is a mistake.
This meal gives us the energy we need to get through our day as long as we have all the food groups in it.
TAKING CARE OF OTHERS
Now I am ready to go to work; having taken care of myself, I am now prepared to face the world and do what I do best.
Presently I work two jobs, each a couple of days a week.
8:30 am - 5:30 pm: Job 1
The first job I have the privilege to work at is with Progressive Medical Center.
Progressive Medical Center is an integrative and functional medicine clinic.
Integrative medicine takes into account the whole person, including all aspects of the person’s lifestyle.
It has both patient and practitioner working together to come up with a plan to attain optimal health. It deals with all factors affecting health, wellness, and disease; physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and environmental factors.
Functional medicine treats the individual rather than the disease.
It focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. The way each cause presents itself depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle.
Functional medicine uses different methods to address the cause of any particular disease process.
Finding and treating what exactly is causing a specific problem or disease will lead to its getting better or complete resolution.
My medicine practice has culminated in this, where I can bring into play everything I have learned over the past 30 years.
With conventional or traditional medicine, based on signs and symptoms, lab work, and at times imaging, a diagnosis is made. The diagnosis is usually treated with pharmaceuticals.
For most chronic illnesses, one has to be on medications for a long time and at times for life to keep these diseases under control.
Most pharmaceuticals have side effects, which tend to compound the more drugs you are on.
With functional medicine, being able to get down to the root cause of these chronic illnesses, we can use different modalities to treat, including nutraceuticals.
Nutraceuticals are herb and plant-based supplements which overall have much fewer side effects on the body than pharmaceuticals.
With these treatments, we can improve their quality of life and hopefully decrease the disease burden.
8 am - 4 pm: Job 2
My second job involves seeing mostly older patients in their homes.
In addition to seeing their primary care physician at least once a year, many health insurance providers have doctors go into their patients’ homes to do a yearly evaluation.
It serves to address anything that may not have been addressed at their doctor’s visit, see the patient in their living environment, and address any other issues that may negatively impact their health and well-being.
The issues are then documented and conveyed to their health insurance plan.
The time spent with each patient, getting to know them, educating, offering advice, and providing suggestions to their health insurance provider can improve their overall wellness.
Again, this work provides me great satisfaction and the feeling that I have made a difference day in someone’s life.
6 - 10 pm: Destressing
After working all day, I usually go home and relax.
I get to sit back and have dinner.
Now, I can do the things that interest me and make me happy, such as working on this blog, reading a book, playing the piano, singing, dancing, or just watching a movie.
Of course, I spend some time connecting with others, either in person, on the phone, or on Facebook.
Final Thoughts
As I reflect on my day, I want to see that I have spent it well; God first, taking care of myself, my family, and others.
The Bible says, “Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” Deuteronomy 4: 6-7, Matt 22: 37, and Luke 10: 27.
I pray that at the end of each day, I would have accomplished this.
Well, it’s time to do this all over again. I need to get my beauty sleep.
‘Till tomorrow.
