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It’s Time to Stop Wining | Dec 15, 2014

Dr. Barry

It’s the December issue and I usually spend it exhorting you to spend a little extra time on the friend and family part of your health equation. To get out and do stuff…whether it’s Lights on the Lake…going out to just one of the seasonal shows at the Palace Theater…going Cross Country Skiing at Highland Forest…we have covered this ground and you should be picking up your phone to make arrangements. You’re going to say…let me at least read through the rest of the article and then I will make the calls. Here’s the problem…I know you…you have good intentions but at the end of the article you are just going to forget about it. So, it’s much more important to stop now and at least make one new plan than to read through this article…you can always come back to the article…you probably won’t make a new plan unless you start right now.

Well, we are all deeply flawed individuals as my colleague, Dr. Manfredi, likes to remind me. So let’s get on with the article. Did you think I misspelled whining at the top of the article? No, I really do mean it’s time to stop wining. For more than 5 years our office has been quietly giving out a bottle of wine to our patients who had appointments around Xmas time. We appreciate our patients and thought it was a nice touch…giving a gift of health. It’s well known in the medical community that a modest amount of wine is good for your health…of course there are the exceptions and therein lays the problem. With exceptions come problems. With problems come headaches. Headache cause us to say it’s time to stop the gifting, at least for now.

Let me elaborate…we want to do something nice for the holidays but not if it’s going to make people mad at you, give you new legal issues and potential liabilities, take up too much time and money. Frankly the money part of the equation was not the main reason we are stopping the giving of the wine. We had people complaining that they did not like our choice of wine. We had people complaining that they were good patients but did not come by around Xmas but surely they deserved a bottle. We don’t want to give a bottle to a person with a history of alcohol trouble but what if the person says “I have been proudly sober for 10 years but I see other people leaving with wine and I wouldn’t mind bringing the bottle over to my sister’s house for the holidays.” People would come in for a problem…have a recheck for the problem three days later and want another bottle of wine! Frankly when we had so many people expecting a bottle like we were some assembly line it isn’t a nice healthy surprise anymore. It’s lost the magic. It’s lost the meaning of the gesture. So, no more wine from Preventive Medicine Associates. Please don’t take it personally.

Instead of giving individual gifts of wine, we will spend the money on several local projects including supporting the Maria Desantis Xmas show at the Palace Theater. It’s a great show for the young and old alike. The reason for the season is all about the Birth of Jesus…but anyone of any religion can understand this is a time of year to enjoy with friends and family. You should absolutely watch some version of Scrooge each year. If you can’t take something important away from this story you are beyond help…and I know you and there is still some hope for you. Well, I for one have not given up on you.

Another way we at Preventive Medicine Associates will show our gratitude to our patients is in support of some local family that needs help during the season. We have done this for years already but this year we can bump it up a few notches. We will put some smiles on some family faces this year.

So please understand that we thought that the wine gifting idea had run its course. I wanted to give out little jars of horseradish because along with garlic and ginger it is one pf the best things you can put in your mouth but there was surprisingly little support for the idea around the planning table. So we are doing more for the community in general by sponsoring the Desantis show and by being Secret Santa to some families. Hopefully you will understand and agree with our decisions and motivations. Wishing you a healthy and happy Christmas.

Now is the time to make those family Christmas plans and don’t forget Maria Desantis at the Palace Theater Sunday Dec 14^th. Next month…why and how I hope to fundamentally change my practice of medicine. Stay tuned.