Living the Life
With Dr. Jim

I suspect I am like so many of the baby boomers and have harked back to my rural roots. I have given up life in the big city and have returned to a refuge in the country. I have a small ranch in southern Colorado where I can raise a few Highland cattle, drive my team of Belgian draft horses and bask in the magnificent views of mountains and high prairie. I do feel I am truly living the life I had dreamed of having.

Everything comes with a price and one of the concerns in a small rural community is that of healthcare for an aging population. As healthcare professionals, we have been fortunate to find an area with a critical access hospital, good family practitioners, excellent emergency services and a good balance of specialists, many of whom come to the community on a rotating schedule. My goal is to provide an informative way for others to make their way along a path that will allow them to live the life they have envisioned.

Over the next weeks, months and hopefully years, I would like to answer questions regarding healthcare issues important to those in similar situations as my wife and I find ourselves. Thankfully, I am not a pediatrician and will not attempt to opine on conditions peculiar to grandchildren other than to say they are God's rewards to us for not killing our own children when we were sorely tempted.

With advancing age come quality of life issues. Having experienced both fast-paced city living and the decompression of rural life, I have come to believe there is more quality where you can't easily access the drive-thru restaurant or are not forced to endure the stress of freeway driving, not to mention the added health benefits. We now cook healthy meals together and enjoy going for walks with the extra time we have as a result of not having to commute. The blood pressure has gone down (along with the cholesterol) and stamina has increased. We sleep at night without the aid of drugs (although the CPAP is still necessary for me) and only occasionally awaken to the hooting of an owl who likes to roost on our chimney.

I invite you to join me in living the life. Let's enjoy every day!

As always with this website, this is a work in progress. More will be added over time, just don't hold your breath. Unless, of course, you want to...