I’m a day late on this, but happy birthday to The New Life of Patient Dave – the blog I started in 2007, at Thanksgiving, eight weeks after the docs said “It looks like you’re gonna make it.”
Man, talk about Thanksgiving.
So I gave thanks.
- My first post, 11/29/2007, thanked my hospital: Thank you, Beth Israel Deaconess!
- My next, 12/4, thanked my surgeon. (Somehow I’d left him out of the first one.)
- On 12/9 I thanked my insurance company. (Yes, I thanked my insurance company – Harvard Pilgrim, at the time.)
And in between, I mused about two things that foreshadowed the future: a sense that I wanted to be more effective in life than I had been, and analyzing a misuse of statistics in reporting:
“Occasionally, I’ll use this bully pulpit for a rant … I feel strongly that any statistics about costs and outcomes in a system should have an accountant’s note specifying what proportion of the population goes without coverage in that system, such that they don’t even have an outcome. Until we get honest about that, all we’re doing is chasing a bubble under the blanket.”
Note, this wasn’t about the US reform bill; this was December 2007, a year before Obama was elected.
Seven weeks later I discovered the e-patient movement (“e-Patient? Yes, e-Patient”), renamed the blog from Patient Dave to e-Patient Dave, and “new life” took on a whole new meaning. Today I post mainly here and at e-patients.net – but that was where it started.
Here’s to new beginnings, here’s to Dr. Danny Sands (who introduced me to e-patients.net), and here’s to life. From that great song about uncertainty, joy, and commitment, from Fiddler on the Roof:
Our great men have written words of wisdom
to be used when hardships must be faced
Life obliges us with hardships
so the words of wisdom shouldn’t go to waste!To us and our good fortune – be happy, be healthy, long life
and if our good fortune never comes, here’s to whatever comes –Drink l’chaim – to life!
Happy birthday, blogging … you changed my life for good.
Happy 4th bloggethday! We’re all immeasurably better for you efforts. Keep up the brilliant work.
Thank you!
So… Where’s the cake & ice cream? :-)
Dave,
Happy 4th Birthday! I feel honored to be one of your “virtual friends”. You are making a huge impact on healthcare in the US and I’m honored to work alongside you to bring Participatory Medicine into the lives of as many Americans as we can.
Blessings, Jonena
Many congratulations Dave!! And many more birthdays to this blog to come
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