The World Needs More Girlfriends

2 Comments April 14, 2015 drworobec

This one is written with my female readers in mind. Not that men don’t need/value friendship as much as women, but I’m writing from a place of personal experience, and that experience comes from a female background.

The world needs more girlfriends. I was in my car this morning, running around amongst school drop-offs and library pickups and patient appointments, and this statement rang out in my brain like a bell. The world needs more girlfriends. More specifically, we all need more girlfriends. More connection. More support. More friendship. In fact, I had a different blog post all polished up and ready to go today; but this statement came so quickly and so clearly, that I felt it needed some attention. The world needs more girlfriends.

I’ve always been lucky enough to have a large circle of friends. I moved from small-town Alberta to bigger small-town Alberta when I was ten years old, and one of my most vivid memories of early childhood is the ‘going-away’ party that was held for me when we moved- it included sitting around in a circle of my closest girlfriends, crying, listening to ‘Every Rose Has its Thorn.’ Quite the visual, right? And it’s no secret that my Junior High and High School experience centred around my friend Sarah, who’s still my foundation, 25 years later. My University days brought me my other sounding board, Shannon, and our friendship has spanned the distance of miles and time changes. And CMCC, the four-year all-in-or-all-out program that uprooted my life and moved me across the country, gave me friendships that I lean on daily.

Lifelong friends.

So when I moved to Burlington in 2004, and then finished school in 2006, it was the first time in my life when I found myself not surrounded by girlfriends who knew me; the real, authentic me. I was starting my practice, living in a city that didn’t feel like home, and my closest friends were a phone call and a plane ride away. I remember lamenting to my husband that I felt lonely and isolated, and I just needed more friends….

The world needs more girlfriends. And I found some. I grew roots. I met people. I built my practice, I joined a running club, I started CrossFit, I moved to a new neighbourhood, and my circle began to expand. Now I have those go-for-coffee friends that I so longed for ten years ago. I have those come-over-in-my-sweatpants friends and those listening-ear friends, those go-for-a-walk friends and those can-you-do-me-a-favour friends.

And yes, I still have all those friends I mentioned at the start, who are still a phone call and a plane ride away. And they mean the world to me too.

xo.

This is a gentle PSA to nurture your friendships….

Another Spring, Another Eye Patch

1 Comment April 7, 2015 drworobec

It’s April. Spring cleaning, windows open, and for my family, another child with an eye patch.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that last April my then-two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with amblyopia and prescribed occlusion patching of her strong right eye three hours per day, along with prescription glasses. That little firecracker is now approaching 20/20 vision, and her patch has never been an issue. She’s been a textbook case of resiliency and progress.

But we took my six-year-old son, who also wears glasses, for a follow-up appointment with our optometrist last week. He’s got a similar condition to my daughter, albeit much less severe, in that one eye is stronger than the other. If left unchecked, the strong eye will take over and the weak eye will worsen. And he’s approaching seven years old; the magical age when visual improvement dramatically lessens. In other words, if we don’t nip this in the bud now, we’ll miss our window of opportunity. So he was just prescribed an eye patch daily as well, likely for the next 9-12 months. Although his vision has improved since his last appointment, we are hoping occlusion patching will hasten the process further.

A year ago, when we were given my daughter’s diagnosis, I freaked out. I worried, I stewed, I lost sleep. This time around, the unknown is known. I know this can be fixed. I know my son will handle it, as my daughter did. I know this is not the end of the world.

For a long while, throughout most of high school, my career aspiration was to become an optometrist. Sometimes I wish I had, so that I could have a better understanding of the what/why of my children’s vision struggles. And today, as a chiropractor, I live and work in a world of science and anatomy. Every day I talk to patients about compensation injuries and about how “our bodies are very smart.” So how is it that I have two children, both visually challenged enough to require occlusion patching? My logical brain has crunched the numbers- the likelihood of this is 0.09%.

Oh, but mama guilt is a hard one to overcome. Could I have done something differently during my pregnancies? During their infancy? I’ve thought about Vitamin A and Ultrasounds and maternal viruses. I’ve replayed toddler moments, re-read baby books, looked over midwife notes. Or is this just a combination of genetics and luck-of-the-draw?

Rather than drive myself crazy with the what-ifs, I’m going to believe that technology advances in vision care have helped to detect deficits that may have remained hidden decades ago. We live in an age of medical knowledge and discovery, and with that comes human advances that weren’t possible in times gone by.

We’re lucky. They’re lucky.

And we’re all gonna be pirates for Halloween.

My little gems with their matching bed-heads and eye patches.

I’m Burlington’s Pan Am Community Torchbearer!

4 Comments March 30, 2015 drworobec

Um….. I WAS VOTED BURLINGTON’S PAN AM COMMUNITY TORCHBEARER! I have held in this secret for two very loooooong months. I found out about this result soon after voting closed in late January, but I wasn’t able to share the news with anyone until the Pan Am Games made their official announcement, which they did last week.

Believe me, this was a hard secret to keep.

The torch will pass through Burlington on Friday, June 19th, although I don’t know many more details than that. This is what I do know:

Where: Spencer Smith Park; this also happens to be the Sound of Music Festival weekend.
Length of run: 200m (and here I was hoping for a 5k! Ha!)
And: Burlington is listed as one of Pan Am’s “Major Celebration cities.”

So to you, my readers, my patients, my family, my friends: I thank you for granting me this incredible opportunity. And to you, Marnie, my friend, my neighbour, my nominator, thank you for igniting the spark for all of this to happen.

Mark June 19th on your calendars.

And come join me along the torch route as we celebrate the Pan Am spirit of community and sport.