10/08/2026
In my perfect world, we'd still use paper charts.
Not because I don't appreciate technology.
But because somewhere along the way, I think we lost something pretty important in medicine.
When I was growing up, the doctors who inspired me weren't the ones with the fanciest equipment, the biggest practices, or the most impressive credentials.
They were the country doctors.
The kind who knew their patients. Their families. Their stories.
The kind who showed up when someone needed them.
I remember a Dr. Brown Bear from a children's shows seeing the patient in their bed.
And Doc Wallace in Shiloh who, despite not being a veterinarian, did his best to patch up an injured puppy - at his patient's home.
Not because treating dogs was his job. But because helping that dog mattered to his patient.
THAT was medicine to me.
There was even a doctor locally in the 90s (and before) who had a reputation for being a little gruff.
Not necessarily the warmest and fuzziest guy in town.
But if you knew, you knew.
Behind that gruff exterior was a physician who would go to extraordinary lengths to take care of his patients.
He didn't need a five-star customer service rating.
He cared. And when it mattered, he showed up.
Stories of personally sitting at the bedside of a child and helping families after hours who couldn't afford care...
Those were the doctors who made me want to work in healthcare.
Not the algorithms.
Not the productivity metrics.
Not the 15-minute appointments.
Not the endless clicking through electronic medical records while a human being sits on the other side of the screen trying to explain what's wrong.
I wanted to practice the kind of medicine where you actually KNOW the person you're caring for.
Where their family, their work, their stress, their beliefs, their environment, and their life circumstances aren't irrelevant details.
They're part of the clinical picture.
Where you have enough time to listen.
Enough autonomy to think.
And enough of a relationship that when something doesn't seem right, you recognize it.
I spent years working in emergency medicine, watching patients struggle to find that kind of care and treating conditions that wouldn't exist if they had it -- but they came to the ER because they didn't know what else to do...
I can't get a job practicing the kind of medicine I actually believe in.
So I created one.
That's a big part of why Destination Vitality exists.
And yes, functional medicine - it seems so cutting edge but also dates back to the late 1980s...
I love digging into physiology, biochemistry, the nervous system, psychoneuroimmunology, environmental exposures, and the interconnected systems that influence our health.
I love having access to sophisticated testing and emerging research.
The science I use can be pretty advanced..
But the way I want to deliver care?
It's a little old-fashioned.
I want to know my patients.
I want to hear the story behind the symptoms.
I want to understand what matters to them.
I want to consider what we can change in their everyday lives before automatically reaching for another prescription.
I want to practice medicine with curiosity, common sense, clinical judgment, and an actual human relationship.
And I'd rather have a smaller number of patients I can genuinely care for than a packed schedule of people I barely know.
Maybe I'm a little nostalgic.
Maybe I'm stubborn.
Maybe the country doctor was always a bit of an ideal.
But I don't think wanting your healthcare provider to know you, listen to you, and genuinely give a damn about what happens to you should be considered some radical new concept.
A little old-fashioned, a little cutting edge..
That's Holistic Primary Care at Destination Vitality.
And I like it that way. ❤️
Enrollment is open, but intentionally limited.
If this sounds like the kind of healthcare you've been looking for, book your comprehensive wellness review & keep an eye out for an upcoming webinar...
Can anyone guess the doctor I was referring to? 💚
