Greetings to 2011!  This is the year for taking resolutions to results!    

Our goal here at the practice is to support you in accomplishing your goals and help you utilize the tools that will transform your resolutions to results!

I realize that I’ve been silent over the last couple of months.  Personally, there has been a lot going on, including some very exciting things and some very tragic news.  As for the practice, this fall and winter have been filled with wonderful success stories from many of our patients.  We love to hear confirmation of healing and we love to share them with you.  You can read some of these on our website testimonial page at Cabecahealth.com.  I have no doubt they will inspire you as much as they have inspired me!  

The goal of our practice is twofold:  to help each of our patients prevent illness and obtain optimal health.  We say an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"—and each of you is worth it!  This Tuesday, January 25th , we have another “Girls' Night Out” at our practice and the focus is on you—YOU living better and looking  younger! A large part of being the best "you" is educating yourself about your health and tools that can help you maximize your potential.  As a start, I am sharing my first "Dr.’s orders" for 2011.  I challenge you to take time out for yourself each day for what I call "gratitude journaling."  It only needs to be for five or ten minutes every morning.  By doing this, you can keep your  focus on those positive and wonderful things that you are grateful for in the midst of daily life, including the heartaches.    

Tragically, this November my well respected colleague and the wonderful husband of a dear friend of mine died unexpectedly while playing soccer.  He was a man in great shape and a great physician, and was only 48 years old.  The reason for his death is unknown, but appears to be from an isolated cardiac arrhythmia.  They have been living in North Carolina for the past six years and have been healthy, living as naturally as possible, exercising regularly and living lovingly.  At the same time, his dear wife and my very dear friend (whose two beautiful children I delivered) has been diagnosed with Stage III Colon cancer at the young age of 46 with relatively no symptoms.  Dealing with these tragedies affecting people I love dearly in my life truthfully sent me into a downward spiral.  I've experienced waves of grief and sadness.  With it has come the fatigue, lack of focus, and sense of despair.  Thank God for my children because I know that they need me.  And, when it comes down to it, all I know how to do is to move into action and do what I can physically and mentally to help my dear friend as she fights this battle of her life, for her life and for her children in the midst of her grieving.  

The homework I have given you is the homework I am doing myself, and what my friend is also doing as we fight together.  Utilizing functional and restorative medicine will help her through her chemotherapy to achieve the best wellness and healing possible.  I encourage myself, my friend, and each one of you to tap into your  spiritual and faithful side to enlist the gratitude we feel  for all the good things in our lives.  

As for many of the good things that we do for ourselves, the reality is we live in a toxic world of stress and of environmental toxins, and who knows what else!  We have to keep being proactive, not let go of hope, and keep up our optimism, positive attitude and a sense of grace and gratefulness.

In my daily devotions and reading of Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling her words inspire me in the midst of my grief: to hope, and smile, and serve.  In the January devotional, she encourages seeking God in the midst of the trauma and tragedy, and to thank him.  Wow, this is hard!  However, she is right.  We cannot keep ruminating and re-living the past.  We have passed through it to the present and we have hope for this day.

In my book, The Restorative Health Program, which will become a tele-series this winter, the first step is positive mental attitude.  While I did succumb to my grief, sorrow and despair, it was through faith, family, friends, community and encouragement, and God’s quirky sense of humor, that I am back on track and grateful for this breath, today...  and better able to support my friends and my family.  Sometimes it is a matter of pulling ourselves back up with our chin held high and looking to God.  I'm Looking forward and moving forward with strength.

There’s so much more that I wish to share with you and I will keep up with regular posts at least once a month.

Also, I want to share some exciting news about the redesign of our Web site [Link Removed]  The Web site looks fantastic and our goal is for it to be as patient friendly and user-friendly as possible.

You'll note on the [Link Removed] site there is a new patient portal specifically for patients of Cabeca health and Golden Isles medical spa.  Here, you may register online, ask for prescription refills, take part in a virtual office visit, ask questions of both nurses and myself and pay bills online.  This is exciting for all of you computer savvy people, because this will make life easier all around and, and also easier for for the  information be transferred into your medical record.

Here's to looking up and moving forward!  I wish you a Vida Pura.

Anna Cabeca, DO, FACOG, ABAARM

Dr-cabeca, Your links have been removed, please consider upgrading to premium membership.