Do Nothing.

2 Comments April 8, 2014 drworobec

Some days exhaustion creeps in and I feel worn down and beat up and much older than my 34 years would suggest… but such is life for many of us. There is little downtime and not much R&R. Instead, my days begin with barbells and lifting shoes, chalk buckets and timers. They’re filled with slobbery kisses and walks to the park, cleaning of messes and shuttling to programs, making of lunches and see-you-later hugs. They end with my work, my patients, my passion. Life is good. I have happiness and health and peace of mind. But life is busy.

I often feel more tired on a Monday than I do on a Friday, after we’ve squeezed in as much family fun as we can on precious weekend days. If you ask me what I’m up to for the coming weekend, I will often say “not much”, and that’s only a half-truth. To me, “not much” weekends create a chance to get caught up on family adventures and household chores. To get caught up on life. This past weekend’s “not much” turned into Spring yard cleanup, hosting friends, church, hot yoga, and dinner in TO. Throw in online banking, Summer vacation research, and nursery school paperwork, and there was no sit-down-and-do-nothing time. Gone are the days of sleeping in, long runs, and leisurely brunches, and here are the days of early-risers, building forts, and playing Lego. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I thrive on tasks to complete and projects to juggle, and I’m far more productive and efficient when time is a factor. But what I do need to change, what I do need to balance, what I do need to manage is “off time”. Time where I sit and do… nothing. And actually enjoy it.

The problem I have, and perhaps many do, is that when I’m doing nothing, I’m thinking about what I could be doing. What I could be accomplishing. What I could be checking off my to-do list. Maybe it’s the planner in me, maybe it’s the mother in me, maybe it’s the ‘Type A’ in me. What can I say, I’m a first-born female Virgo; it’s my nature. The guilt creeps in, the mental checklist creeps in, the need to achieve, to perform, to do more creeps in. So I’m adding a new to-do-list item: do nothing.

What am I up to this weekend? Not much. Nothing.

do nothing

My Daughter Needs Glasses

6 Comments April 1, 2014 drworobec

***This post was originally written as a Guest Blog post for Momstown.ca.***

We made a trip to the optometrist last week and were told that my daughter likely needs glasses. She’s just turned two…. 25-months-old, only a toddler, still my baby girl. And she needs glasses. I was floored by this, as I never suspected a problem with her vision and I was simply bringing her in for a routine check-up. It’s been on my to-do list for far too long, along with dentist appointments and well-baby exams. But it seems that Spring signals annual appointments around here, and so off to the eye doctor we went.

I’m told that her eyes see very differently, and that we want to give her left eye the best possible chance of developing optimally, for which glasses will help. She will likely need these glasses throughout her childhood, and perhaps forever, depending on how her vision changes as she grows. There were lots of lights, lots of lenses, lots of machines, and lots of tests; and more tests will come in a few weeks when we get her ‘double-checked’ before going the glasses route. But the optometrist was steadfast, thorough, and concise, and told me to prepare for a glasses fitting at the end of April. So prepare, I shall.

Emotion swirled around me as we left the clinic, and I’ve been struggling to make sense of what I’m feeling. Sad? Worried? Nervous? In fact, it’s all of the above and then some. I’m sad for her, as she’ll now need to navigate the world visibly different than her peers- but we will celebrate those differences. I’m worried about potential teasing and bullying- but we will celebrate self-confidence and self-esteem. I’m nervous that her vision will worsen- but we will celebrate the vision that she has.

And then perspective shifts and I see how wonderful this news is- wonderful that it’s not worse, wonderful that it’s treatable, wonderful that she’s healthy. We got an awful cancer scare when she was only a few months old, ironically also involving her eyes, and I have counted my blessings and remembered that dread every day since. She’s my ‘make-me-worry kid’- she was late to walk, she’s late to talk, and I can only imagine what her room will look like when she’s a teenager.

She’s teaching me new lessons about the big picture. Hopefully I’m learning.

AshleyW0018

“You’re Not Ready Yet”

Leave a comment March 25, 2014 drworobec

An athlete who returns to training fearful about re-injury is an athlete that is more prone to re-injury.

Think about that statement for a minute. Now why would I choose to write about this topic? Because it’s something that I deal with almost daily in my practice. If you are reading this as a patient, perhaps you can relate, and if you are reading this as a practitioner that works with athletes, most certainly you can relate.

My knee surgery- March/2005

But, you see, this is one of the reasons that I LOVE working with athletes… I love their I-cannot-rest-I-need-to-get-back-to-training attitude. Because I’m like that too. I’m one of them. I’m the basketball player who broke her thumb and finished the tournament (ask my parents). I’m the ball-hockey player who tore her ACL and kept training for a marathon (ask my friends). I’m the runner who sprained her ankle, taped it up, and competed anyways (ask my husband). Were these smart decisions? Probably not. Would I choose differently now? Also probably not.

But….. and this is a big but, a huge however, and an extreme nonetheless…. getting back to training before your injury is healed is not the best choice in the long run. Let me say that again in a different way: if you injure a structure in your body and that structure is not healed before you resume training, you will re-injure yourself. And, most likely, it’ll be worse the second time around.

That’s where the fear component comes into play. Remember my original statement? An athlete who returns to training fearful about re-injury is an athlete that is more prone to re-injury. I believe that athletes know their bodies far better than I, their healthcare practitioner, do. Sure, I know the anatomy, I understand the biomechanics, and I can draw upon research studies and my professional experience, but I don’t really know what they’re feeling.

I’m not referring to their fear of the consequences of re-injury (ie. the baseball player who worries about missing the rest of his season, the Crossfitter who worries about completing the next Open workout, the runner who worries about finishing her next marathon)- those are normal, understandable, expected fears. I am talking about the fear, the apprehension, the tentativeness, the uneasiness, the doubt that can creep in under the surface of it all and whisper to the athlete “you’re not ready yet.” That’s where re-injury happens.

To my athletes: if I give you the green light to resume training and fear murmurs “you’re not ready yet,” tell me. And I will agree.

everyday get better