pediatric housecalls Robert R. Jarrett M.D. M.B.A. FAAP
Hello, and welcome to Pediatric House Calls. I am… A Physician board certified in Pediatric medicine with Clinical experience including caring for infants, children and teens – well these days mostly children and teens up to twenty-one; An Administrator experienced in top medical management for several national health insurance companies; An Author of health care manuals, newspaper columns and even children's stories; A Business Medical Consultant for drug companies, insurance companies and
physician practices; A Veteran of the US Navy in the Vietnam era;
And… I make House-Calls.
For some reason I’ve been thinking about Celine Dion and Josh Grobin lately… well, not so much them, as the performance they gave once that really impressed me, and I just can’t seem to get out of my mind lately. Today, rummaging through my stuff I found it. The video I mean.
Watching it again, refreshes my mind why I liked it so much. And it wasn’t so much their performance as it was how skillfully they conveyed the meaning of the libretto – the words:
Nella mia preghiera – Let this be our prayer, Quanta fede c’è – When shadows fill our day:
Lead us to a place… Guide us with your grace… Give us faith so we’ll be safe.
I just seems to me, that today… in these days of so much uncertainty, and… dishevelment, that we (parents) need to plead for these things in great measure. And enable us to teach our children the skill to follow. Perhaps they’ll need it more than we do.
Do you suppose that if we hide under the bed they won’t notice, and we can skip this year? Or… perhaps they’ll let us go back and do last year over, until we get it right?
What am I saying?!!! I can think of a lot of things I’d like to do over; BUT, I don’t think I could handle another election year!
2024 did bring new advances in pediatrics. We’ve got some new immunizations, a better understanding of sports injuries, a newfound understanding of the benefits of reading to even the smallest children, developments in cancer treatment, more options for treatment in some very rare diseases and some not-so-rare; but, surprise, we’ve still got a long way to go in education, nutrition, drugs and mental health in good ol’ ’25!
For me, I still wonder where the time went from when we were worrying about being stranded on an airplane during Year-Two-Thousand — just where did the time go? It’s been 25 years now!
Have a Happy New Year… please!
From DJmed.net – Pediatric House Calls
[About this time every year things get a bit hectic around the homestead and we need to take a little hiatus. Hope you and everyone you care about have a perfect holiday season—wherever you may be! See you again in the new year.]
I trained in the Navy during the Vietnam war. I wasn’t in the fighting, thank heavens; but, I pretty much saw all of its results and tried to fix as much as I could.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about war again. It really hasn’t changed much – except: It just feels… “closer” somehow; and I don’t remember so much anger – at least around me.
It seemed to me that we were a bit more united back then; fighting the same battle, doing our jobs and just putting one foot in front of the other. Maybe there was this much anger, but I just was too busy to see it – or – maybe this is different.
Back then, if I forced myself to blur out all the big picture around and just look at the life right in front of me, I could love my job. Things seemed to… “matter” more; contact was easier and… more welcomed; actions were… more appreciated and less suspicioned; the occasional accidents, unintentional “slights” and even mistakes were less… uhmmmm… “exploded” upon.
My job is different now… a bit less “meaningful” and “urgent” in a way. It seems, inside me though, that I am the same. I mean, I still care the same; but, I just have fewer opportunities these days to express it.
Are we that much different now… really? We can still be nice… can’t we?
Please… have a Merry Christmas!
Christmas – 1941
Christmas – 2024
From DJmed.net – Pediatric House Calls
[About this time every year things get a bit hectic around the homestead and we need to take a little hiatus. Hope you and everyone you care about have a perfect holiday season—wherever you may be! See you again in the new year.]
Is it just me or did this year’s end-of-year holiday season just jump out and pounce on us about two months early?! It’s caught me a bit off guard this year; but, to tell you the truth, I’m going to breathe a sigh of relief when “this ones'” done, and we can start fresh on another one.
Here in “The States” it’s a designated end-of-year holiday commemorating the gratefulness that the “original European settlers” felt after finally pulling in their first year’s crops in a new land. Now, with over 500 years behind us and 2024 sensibilities, it’s easy to forget all the ancestral beginnings in favor of just being glad the “elections” over!
I hope you won’t mind me giving about the only quote I can remember from my youth which might be a bit appropriate for the occasion:
With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge
of our deeds, let us go forth and lead the land we love, asking His blessings and His help,
knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own. (JFK, inaugural address)
Please… have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving – 2024
From DJmed.net – Pediatric House Calls
[About this time every year things get a bit hectic around the homestead and we need to take a little hiatus. Hope you and everyone you care about have a perfect holiday season—wherever you may be! See you again in the new year.]
This article on Circumcision is the Thirty-second (and perhaps final) in the series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never physically met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences. His URL is up for sale, I lost track of him after COVID, and now have archived his content here for safe keeping until he wants it back. (Except his images which were lost, so I have added some back for clarity)
[Guest Author] This article on infant colic is the thirty-first in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. His URL is up for sale, and I’ve lost track of him now after COVID, but his content will be here for safe keeping until he wants it back. I’ve written about Colic before, but Dr. Barrett has a refreshing viewpoint.
[Guest Author] This article on tattoos and body piercings is the thirtieth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. His URL is up for sale, and I’ve lost track of him now after COVID, but his content will be here for safe keeping until he wants it back.
