Veteran's Day 2010, A Tribute to My Dad and Info about How Lumigrate is Addressing Information

Two months ago, my sister, her husband and I were joined by our friends and family to celebrate a life that had passed on Labor Day -- that of my father.  It was a beautiful fall day in a chapel at the top of a mountain outside of Denver, Colorado with pine trees out the door and window and an interesting history of people collecting to come pay their respects.  The pace and theme of the service had been kept very much like a music program because it was put together by music teachers (sister and her husband), with my more serious piece interjected which reflected what I do for a living, which is educate about progressive medical concepts, such as hospice and being a proactive patient.  I thought to take out my cell phone and snap a photograph of the what I saw as truly a beautiful moment with the sun streaming in, hitting the beautiful wood of the casket which was draped halfway, at our request, with an American flag.  

It was an honor to co-receive, with my sister, the flag that was so respectfully folded and presented to us on behalf of the mortuary and the United States Air Force.  We chose to forego having the Air Force send people all the way out as the theme of the service was informal and upbeat, and one of the musicians was able to play taps.  It brought to me an opportunity to think about so many things.  I'd been asked in the limo how far back I knew that my dad had the medical condition he had, and it surprised people when I said that it had been since I was in OT school in the mid 1990s, because I ended up having a hard but wonderful internship in Denver at the Veteran's Affairs hospital on their rehabiltation unit and psychiatric unit because I had submitted a request to the fieldwork office to have one of the rare Denver-area fieldworks due to my dad's increased needs for a man in his mid 70s. That internship ended up being invaluable and 'meant to be', in my opinion.

There at the VA with the mentoring of two amazing, older, wise OTs and Vietnam Veterans, and through a primary relationship since that I had for many years, I was exposed to a lot of information about post traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans which has forever changed the way that I look at things.  What I've constructed with Lumigrate is partly a result: I no longer think of 'trauma' as being merely 'psychological' -- it changes the structures of the brain, so therefore, is it not also 'physical'?  How can you separate these things, the body, mind, spirit -- they really are one, and so I have created Lumigrate with that paradigm at the center of information being integrated in by a variety of providers.  As represented by the logo.

My long-time love, who affectionately referred to my dad as 'the little buggar man', had actually been in town and come to visit me in Grand Junction the previous Labor Day -- exactly a year before my dad's death it turned out, which is kind of symmetrical because I was in his support system when his mother passed away from Alzheimers, which is similar in a way to the Lewy Body Dementia which my father had in some aspects.  'Mardy, there is so much on your website that these veterans coming back NOW need', to which I said 'yes, I know -- just like anyone with computer access, they'll be able to tap into it'. 

He, like my father, had struggled to get his college education, serving in the military and then coming back out and having the incentive / pressure of having a family to push him along working in an organization that provided well in pay and insurance benefits.  He was a training coordinator with a degree in organizational management and was such a popular and FUN presenter at trainings they had complaints from office workers in the building for all the commotion.  Naturally, I encouraged him to find some time to help me with outreach to the Veterans arena, and at least for now, he is still working on healing his life from all the years of toxins --- Agent Orange, spiritual stress, family of origin issues, divorce, etc. 

So it is really interesting to me that when I ended up seven years ago coming to Grand Junction, I met up and started collaborating with patients with Dr Chris Young, who is in the recently podcast with me introducing what he is going to focus on with the content at Lumigrate, which is adverse childhood experiences and the role of chronic disease and chronic pain in adulthood.  Without having talked about our backgrounds related to the military, we had autonomously settled into doing a version of the collaborative care model which is something he talks about in the free, hour long video on Lumigrate titled Health Management.  Our patients excelled and now we are here on Lumigrate many years later with his involvement in the Forums -- he had a really nice exchange with Aimee Shannon related to forgiveness recently which had a lot of reads.  I'll provide you with the links for these things and wish you respects this Veterans Day.  I hope that Lumigrate is found by many Veterans in the coming days and years and serves them as well as they have served us.  Today, I work for them. 

Link to piece with Aimee and Dr Chris Young about how to get over something bad that has happened to you: www.lumigrate.com/forum/let-go-shameblame-game-better-health-cheryl-young-lmft

Link to Dr Young's $0, one hour of time investment video on Lumigrate about Health Management (and some energy to think as he makes you think about stuff!): www.lumigrate.com/product/health-management-dr-chris-young

Link to the podcast of Dr Young and I talking about our history (which includes his history with the military system as well as mine), which can be listened to on a portable electronic device or just on your computer: www.lumigrate.com/forum/lumigrate-premier-podcast-mardy-ross-and-chris-young-history-and-future