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| A Glimpse in the Mirror |
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by Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA - August 15, 2011
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In my personal diverse reading program, I am presently engaged in devouring Ian McEwan’s Solar. This novel centers on a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is fast approaching 60. Although he is no longer an academic titan, his reputation allows him to collect huge speaking fees and impassively head a government program to battle global warming. His personal life is another matter. An incorrigible womanizer, he has chased off four spouses with affairs and now a fifth wife has turned the tables on him. The story begins when the main character, the physicist, takes a shower and walks past a full length mirror and takes a glimpse at the person who stands before him. His hair is gray and starts two inches above his ears with the remainder bald. His chest has become soft and more female, as if he has breasts. His abdomen, which was once flat in his 20-35 years, began to slowly go through a metamorphosis at 35-50: it swelled annually by five pounds and he was caught “sucking it in.” Now, the 50-60 demonstrates the effect of human blubber on the skeleton of a male and he is confronted with a collapsed penniculis and has been unable to see his toes in a shower when looking straight down for the last fifteen years. Suddenly, his self confidence drains from him as the water drains from the shower. What am I trying to share with the readers of this article?
Firstly, we have a need to occasionally place aside the medical literature and to read varied novels which give us insights into the realities of life and make us more interesting as professionals both to our peers and our patients. Secondly, from the narrative, I was able to draw an analogy of the effects of self discovery: glimpsing into a mirror, on both our personal and professional demeanors. I can recall when both my wife and kids chided me lovingly about “sucking it in,” as obviously they were far more aware than myself…the egotistical PA moving up the ladder of success, to a metamorphosis in my body habitus. What became a joke later became a matter of concern to those who loved me because I developed diabetes, hypertension and an enlarged heart. This began to equate into concern and the idea that I didn’t care about myself nor did I care that I had a family that loved me and that wanted me to live well into my seventies or eighties and that, at this rate, I was going to leave planet earth earlier than the timetable. This did affect my self confidence to a degree and my ego lessened because of the reality of the wages of lack of self control in diet and exercise. I wore my shirts outside as to not bring attention to what existed below my neck. I found it easy to become the butt of my own jokes concerning weight as I saw I was a lost cause. How does this relate to all of you normal PAs and NPs and your daily practice?
Perhaps it’s an early wakeup call if you are at the “suck it in” stage of life. In that case, I am doing what I have always endeavored to accomplish: help my colleagues. But this also falls into a practice setting because we are lacking the ability to set an example for our patients who suffer from the same dilemma. We are not examples of what we are preaching to them. It’s sort of like a surgeon who is trying to convince a balding patient to get a hair transplant, when his own head looks like a shiny dome that can light the darkness. They are saying to themselves, then why has he not visited a colleague who does this procedure? For the obese patient, who is non compliant, it becomes a constant source of worry, agitation and frustration to the health care providers. My IM physician, Dr. Ed Hallal of Bay Shore, NY, maintains a healthy morphology because he constantly encourages his patients concerning diet and exercise.
Lastly, what you think of yourself affects your ability to render the type of care that is essential for a health care provider. Focusing on our personal failures takes some of the steam out of our enthusiastic approach to patient care and we lose the ego that is necessary for a leader or clinician. To explain that remark more thoroughly, I mean to say that all leaders, every one of them, have an ego and with it the desire to be the best and to at least be successful in their challenges. As clinicians, we desire to use our knowledge and skills in a manner consistent with the other colleagues that we respect and to do so without impediment. If we discover the impediment, we then chose to focus on it and work hard on making changes. The old saying is that “tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.” We can change personally and encourage our patients to refrain from look at past failures and look to future success. Our old stumbling blocks can become stepping stones to success. So, the end of the message is the same as the beginning. Slow down as we all work too hard, listen to your family that loves you and stop long enough for self evaluation: take a glimpse in the mirror.
Robert M. Blumm has received national recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He is the past president of the Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants, and was past-president of the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, past president of the American College of Clinicians and NYSSPA, as well as Chairman of the Surgical Congress of the AAPA. In addition, Bob received the John Kirklin MD Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants. Along with his associate, Dr. Acker, Bob was the first recipient of the AAPA PAragon Physician-PA Partnership Award. He has been a contributing author of three textbooks, written 150 plus articles and is a sought out conference speaker throughout the United States.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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| Tom Diver (Fort Worth) |
on 16 Aug 2011 at 4:01 pm |
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| It is very easy to say do as I say not as I do to all of our patients as well as our families. Thanks for sharing and reminding us all to take a look in the mirror. |
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| Bob Blumm (Amityville, NY) |
on 15 Aug 2011 at 10:59 pm |
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Thanks for the encouragement.I have walked down this role and may not be able to reverse it but I can still try. My daughter would be very pissed if i died before 70.
Bob |
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| hollybliss (Hood River, OR) |
on 15 Aug 2011 at 2:28 pm |
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| Thanks, Bob. This is a great reminder. Our patients definitely take into account our body habitus when we counsel them on diet and exercise. |
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