How Small We Are

I'm not even really sure how to start this post.  I'm hoping most of you have been keeping up with Ronan's Blog.  His mom, Maya, usually posts at night, but as of 10pm Arizona time, she hadn't posted yet.   I checked my phone before going to bed and she still hadn't posted anything.   The first thing I did when I woke this morning was look at my phone to see what emails I had (normally I'm not this OCD about looking at my phone, but for some reason, I really wanted an update on Ronan). 

My two year old Keevan was sleeping next to me as I read the news.  The title, "Life's no way to treat an Animal", I knew something was up.  Then the first sentence............They were told that the MIBG  treatment would not help Ronan.  My heart sank.  As I lay next to my beautiful little boy, this family is preparing for the worst.  I'm not sure what other options they have or what options are out there, but from Maya's post, things didn't sound good.  If you have ever saw pictures of this little boy, he is such a little angel.  His blue eyes are like none you have ever seen.   Newell and I were just talking about something like this on our ride the other day.  I am a man that believes whole heartedly in God, but if something ever happened to any of my boys, Im not sure where my faith would go.  Bad things like this aren't supposed to happen to little kids.  They are the innocent ones.  It's our kids that get us through tough times.  As with Maya and Woody, my kids are my life.  Everything I do, I do for them.  My thoughts, my prayers, and my heart go out to this family.  As a dad, I can only imagine the pain that Woody is feeling.  The helplessness, the struggle,.............I just can't even come close to knowing. 

This just goes to show that no matter how in control of something we may feel, we are really never fully in control.  In the end, we are powerless.  All we have is the spirit to fight and do our best to move forward.

I've got lots to say, yet I feel speechless.  Please keep the Thompson family in your thoughts and prayers.  Know that no matter what you may be going through today, if you have your family and your health, you should ask nothing more. 

So Much Going On

Sorry it's been so long between posts.  As I've mentioned before, I've switched accreditation organizations so I've been working a lot on meeting and hopefully going above their standards.  It's a tedious process and one that takes a bunch of time but once were caught up and all my staff is on the same page, we'll be good to go.

Little league started about 2 weeks ago and our major team had their first game last night.  In two weeks, between two teams, I've had 14 practices.  I was definitely ready for the games to begin.  We lost 5 to 7 but I thought the boys did a really good job. They held on to the lead up until the last inning.  Our starting pitcher had used up his 85 pitches and after we had to pull him, things started to go down hill.  All in all though, I was proud of their effort.  We have 9 new players that have never played majors before.  Nerves are always an issue at the beginning of the season.  Hopefully the boys will only grow and improve through the season. 

I have my first minor league game tonight.  My 8 year old Coby is truly an impressive little player.  He excels at any positon I have him at and looks to be one of our better pitchers.   I'm really proud of how hard he works.  Coby's only problem is that he is a perfectonist.  If he's having a bad game, he really gets down on himself.   This is an issue with my two best players.  My goal by the end of the season is to teach them to take the bad with the good.  They will hopefully understand that a positive attitude will reward them with much more success than a pouty one. 

Newell and I went for a 50 mile ride yesterday.  The guy was definitely feeling good as every hill we went up, he was determined to make it hurt.  My back survived the first 25 fairly well, but the last 25 was painful.  I had to stop a couple of times to stretch it just to make sure I was going to make it home.  When we approached the climb at the base of the Whiteriver Hill, Newell had the grand idea of timing ourselves up it.  Who am I to turn down such a painful idea.   I haven't timed myself up this climb for a few years and have no idea what my old record once was.  I thought it was under 23 minutes but can't remember.  Well I'm much slower now.  Newell did it in 24 minutes and I did it in 28:59 (28:59 sounds better than 29:) )   I've got lots of room to improve and hope and pray with all this stretching, my back will survive the summer. 

I've got to get ready to go see some patients in Whiteriver.  Hope you all have a great day!!

5am Ride

So far the week has been going really well.  Yesterday was pretty uneventful.  Typical day at work then two different little league practices.  Today, somehow Newell talked me into going for a ride at 5am.  Realize, it's still dark at 5a.m.  It's also still a little cold.  This morning it was 41 degrees when we left.  We headed up to Pinetop with headlights on and tail lights flashing.  What a great way to start the day.  I really enjoy my rides with Newell.  He's such a good down to earth guy and I value the time we have to talk.  He's one of those friends you feel comfortable talking about anything.  

My back started to hurt by the time we got to Hondah so Newell suggested I get off to stretch it.  Typically I would never interrupt a workout just to stretch, but I thought since we were ahead of schedule, what the heck.  So I pulled over at Hondah and proceeded to do all my goofy looking stretches.  What a huge difference it made.  Looking goofy never felt so good.

We headed back down the hill towards Lakeside and my back felt pretty good.  I may have to humble myself and start stretching on each bike ride.  Sooner or later I have to realize I'm not 20 years old any longer.  If it allows me to continue riding, I'll do whatever it takes. 

I'm a bit worried about how I'm going to accomplish the Ironhorse this year.  I've never gone into a ride wondering if I was going to finish.  I can only hope and pray that all this stretching will improve things by the end of May.

Well, that's about it for now.  Lots of work to do so I best get busy.  Have a super day!!!

Coffee Friday

It's finally Friday!!!  What a long week!  My first stop on the way to work was good ol Starbucks!!  I'm now at my desk enjoying my large 5 dollar cup of a cinnamon dulce latte, yummmmmmmy.   I needed it.   Maybe I'll go for a second one later:)  

As you know, my back has just been trashed lately.  April, thanks for the pilates idea.  As much heck as I gave you about it, I think I may try it.  I've also been working with a physical therapist from Montana and he say's I've just got to start stretching more.  It's an indepth issue but my problem is actually my pelvis.  After so many years of shoeing horses and riding bikes, my back muscles have pulled my pelvis upward in the back and downward in the front.  I have these correction exercises that I should be doing at least 4 times a day, but I've been slacking on them lately.  The thought of not being able to ride my bike is just sickening so I'm determined to get all the stretching in that I can. 

On my way to work this morning I was thinking that my head just seems cloudy lately.   I just can't seem to focus on anything.  I have a million projects in my mind, yet I can't focus on any of them.  When your running a company and trying to help it grow in a particular way, this lack of focus really isn't an option.  I've got to find a solution to this problem.   If any of you know me, I'm a big goal setting guy.  I'm one of those guys with whom you will find a list of goals taped to the mirror:)  I believe whole heartedly that a goal that is not written down is only a dream.  In hopes of getting more done, I'm going to try and prioritize everything I have going on right now.  Everything is going to be written down in order of importance and urgency.  Hopefully then I will actually get something completed.

The IronHorse is less than 45 days away and I'm no where near ready.  At the moment my back would never survive a 50 mile bike ride, even worse it's 50 miles up hill which is even more brutal on my back.  I'm not losing any weight and I'm hardly eating anything at all.  I'm not sure what the deal is.  All I can do is keep plugging away and hoping for the best. 

Anyway, I've got to get some work done.  Maybe I should get started on my list:)  

Have a super day.



 

I'm still here

Sorry it's been a while.  I'm still alive, I've just been super busy.  I've dove head first into trying to perfect our accreditation process, coaching two little league teams, trying to spend time with my family, and of course trying to stay on top of things at work.  I've prayed that God would give me a few 36 hour days, but so far I haven't heard back from him:).

I mentioned in my last post all the things I want to accomplish with work right now, but I'm not making much headway.  I have no excuses, but I really need to make the changes a priority.  We're already a good company but I think the changes will make us even better.  

I've had to take a small break from riding.  My back pain is coming back and riding just seems to make things worse.  It's super frustrating.  I want to ride and I want to run yet both things just kill my back.  I'm sure if I tried swimming, something else would start hurting too.  I thought about ordering the "Insanity" workouts but so far I haven't convinced myself that I would remain committed.  I can't just do nothing though.  I've got to figure something out. 

The lovely spring winds have arrived.  I love living here in the White Mountains, but I get so sick of the wind.  Springtime here would be gorgeous without the dang wind.  Give me snow and rain, but keep the wind. 

Well that's about it for now.  Sorry such a boring post.  I'll try and liven' it up later.

Have a good day. 

Balancing Act

I'm not really sure how to start this out but it all comes down to having the ability to get a million things done while only having time to do a thousand of them.  Does that make sense?

I've got so many things that I both want to do as well as a things I need to do.  Our accreditation is up for renewal in April of 2012.  I've decided to switch accreditation organizations for our next survey.  I wanted to go with a company that was more "hands on" versus just leaving us to learn things on our own.  I'm going with HQAA and so far I have really enjoyed working with them. While many of the policies are a real pain to deal with, for the most part I believe that going through accreditation makes us a stronger company.  It's a very time consuming process.  With all the medicare reimbursement cuts, small companies like ours are have no choice but for our entire staff to wear many hats.  In today's world, it is a major issue to be compliant in every area.  From the way you file and code your patient charts to the way you label and store oxygen tanks.  It's a never ending process, but like I said, if you can stay on top of it, it will only make you a better more efficient company.  

On top of accreditation, there are other ideas that I really want to focus on.  At the top of my list is patient relationships.  At the current moment my drivers have the best relationships with our patients.  Week in and week out,  my drivers get to socialize with our patients.  They build relationships that I believe are very important when it comes to giving the best care possible.   What I want to improve on is my relationships with all of our patients.  When we first started and there were only 3 of us here, I knew all of our patients.  To this day, I still keep in touch with them.  As we have grown though and I spend more time in the office, I have sort of faded to the back of the line.  When it's my turn to be on call,  I enjoy spending time with all the new patients I set up.  I build a good relationship with "my" patients, but what about all the set ups done during the week as well as when I'm not on call?   I believe that to be the company I want Alpha Oxy-Med to be, I need to be out meeting with our patients.   Back when I was taking my Pre-Med classes, it was always my goal to be one of those special doctors that made house calls in a small town.  I think that would be so cool.  While I didn't quite make it to medical school, I think I have the opportunity to do something similar.  Learning whole heartedly about our patients, seeing how they live, listening to their concerns, meeting family members, heck just sitting down for a cup of coffee, this is what makes a difference in peoples lives. 

We originally started with three employees. Mike and I did the office work and deliveries, and Johnnie our respiratory therapist did all the follow up work with our oxygen patients.  Now we have a total of 7 employees as well as 2 more part timers.  As a company grows it becomes harder to keep that "family like" atmosphere.  We've got people going in a hundred different directions.  My office staff  are on the phones and my drivers are in and out of the office all day long.  It's hard to build those relationships when everyone is doing all they can to stay caught up.  Another goal of mine is for our staff to make time to learn more about each other.  While morale has always been good here, I want it to be extremely high.  I want my staff to look forward to coming to work. 

These are my top 3 goals for the near future.  Keeping a place running is a lot of work in itself, but staying at the top of your game is very important.  It takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication, not only on my part but on the part of my staff as well.   I look forward to our continued growth and enjoy the challenges.  We've been blessed to do something special and I have no doubts we will succeed in making a difference.

Young Family Affected by Cancer

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42450455#42450455

Think youre having a tough day??  Check out the link above.  Can you imagine having a little 18 month old baby then suddenly both you and your spouse diagnosed with cancer??  Wow!! What are the odds of that?  Actually with cancer rates growing the way they are, I'm amazed more families aren't affected like this one.  What would you do?  Would you ask, "why me"?? 

I can't even imagine going through something like this.  The love these two people have for each other is what is going to get them through.  Their attitudes are amazing.   I hope and pray they both beat their cancers and move forward living their lives fully for each other and their little girl. 

And the winners are:

Ok, Sorry I'm late but we're really busy today.  I sort of had a little dilemma as to the results.  Do I total the team results and treat each team as an individual or do I just take the individual percentages???

With the weight that both Frenchie and Big Mamma lost, I find it difficult not to consider their amazing efforts.  Soooo, what I'm going to do since both Frenchie and Big Mamma are both on winning teams, is to first award the individual prizes.  Which are...........
Individual Winnings:
1st Place: $300.00
2ndPlace: $200.00
3rdPlace: $100.00


And the winners are:
Individual Results:
1st. Frenchie: 14.91%
2nd Big Mamma: 13.57%
3rd SnowWhite: 8.33%

Teams:

1st place - P.H.A.T    Avg Percentage Lost  7.04lbs  
2nd place- TeamSexercise   Avg Percentage Lost   6.36

And the 3rd place team by only 4 one thousanths of a percentage goes to the Chunky Dunkers with 5.844%

Team Winnings:
1st Place:  $150.00
2nd Place:  $100.00
3rd Place:  $75.00

Awesome Job Everyone!!!!  Hope you all stick with it.  Stay tuned for the next challenge.  I've yet to decide when it's gonna be but I'll let you all know.


If you are one of the winners, or the leading loser of one of the winning teams, please email me your address.  For the team winnings, I'll leave it up to the leader to disperse the winnings to your other team members.

5 hours to go

Five hours till the end of the challenge.  Frenchie and Big Mamma are holding they're own while SnowWhite is still in Third Place.  I haven't heard from a few of you so I'm hoping your hanging in there.   I've mentioned this several times but most of you have no idea how much weight Big Mamma or Frenchie have lost.  I'm honestly truly amazed.  Big Mamma, I've honestly tried figuring out who you are but I still have no idea.  You have a lost an impressive amount of weight!!  Frenchie,  it's gotta be getting about bikini time for you:)   I'm not sure how either of you have gone about dieting but whatever youre doing, it's obviously working. 

Were short handed today at work so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post the winners at exactly noon, but I'll try my best to do it as close as possible.