Queenan Family Medicine and Maternity Care
25 Main Street L9M 1S7 Penetanguishene, ON, Canada

Lovely when my morning to round at the nursing home leaves time for a walk on the walking path around the facility. Chilly and beautiful morning.

Weekends are for laundry, including my office laundry I love how each of the receiving blankets in this stack represents a babe who has come through the office for a well baby visit lately, when we strip babe down into a a diaper and do a weight check. My own boys are way past this stage, but I’m grateful that my job involves cuddles with babes every day.

For parents of littles, please see this announcement about some fun and useful virtual sessions about nutrition for young children age 0-3. Join the EarlyON for Let’s Talk Food virtual sessions! Join Program Facilitators Alex and Caitlin and special guest speaker dietitian Robyn Nagel from the North Simcoe Family Health Team for these virtual zoom sessions. Come to one or all. Join us as we explore: Starting solid foods, Advancing textures, Constipation, and Picky Eaters. We look forward to seeing you! For Parents with children 0-3 years of age. To register go to: http://earlyonsimcoenorth.ca/.../virtual-programs-calendar/ @earlyonsimcoenorth

For parents struggling with mood changes after baby, you are not alone. Please see this announcement about a virtual group run by the North Simcoe Family Health Team starting February 1st.

In the tumult and tragedy overtaking the US now, and in the everyday challenges I face, I am grateful for this reminder that I encountered this morning in the daily meditation in Ten Percent Happier’s New Year’s Challenge. Onward.

5 days in meditation, walking, reading, eating, and sleeping, all in silence save for a 30 minute individual meeting with our teacher and a daily Q&A check-in as a group. It was grounding, clarifying, a time to reset. I’m grateful to everyone who covered the different aspects of my professional life so that all could be cared for while I was away, and for my love for holding down the fort at home. Grateful for Liz Frost and the team @sugar_ridge beautiful, peaceful, and amazing food that was nourishing in body and spirit. It is time to transition back, with the intention of incorporating some of this peace and centeredness with me back into the hecticness of life. Breathe.

I was interviewed for an American podcast called Birth Justice about my thoughts on the difference in the US and Canadian health care systems. This 10 minute episode is the first segment of our conversation. Fun to explore these issues.

Our first drive-thru flu shot clinic was a great success! We're doing it all over again next Wednesday November 4th 1-3pm. Public health has cleared us to give flu shots to everyone, so this time, we can open it up to all the patients of Queenan Family Medicine & Maternity Care. For those receiving flu shots, please bring your health card for registration, and park behind the office on Brock Street and remain in your vehicle -- we will come to you. We continue to offer flu shots to those who already have scheduled appointments in the practice. And the Family Health Team is running flu shot clinics for the community five days a week - please see their website at https://nsfht.ca/ for details.

Queenan Family Medicine will be closed Monday Dec 7th - Thursday Dec 10th - https://mailchi.mp//queenan-family-medicine-maternity-amer

For local folks, the Healthy You program is going virtual! This is a great program run by the North Simcoe Family Health Team that helps you make lifestyle changes to help you reach a maintain a healthier you. Please see https://nsfht.ca/healthy-you/ for more details

Flu Clinic at Queenan Family Medicine - https://mailchi.mp//flu-clinics-at-queenan-family-medicine

Flu Clinics at Queenan Family Medicine - https://mailchi.mp//flu-clinics-at-queenan-family-medicine

I am so happy to welcome Drs Julie Caron, Amanda Murdoch, and Adrian Stacy in their new family medicine practice, Waves Family Medicine, located in The Village Clinic at 101 Thompson Road in Penetanguishene. A number of people have been contacting my office seeking to connect with them please do contact them directly at the link below. I am grateful to them and their care of our community.

As the days grow shorter for those in northern latitudes, seasonal depressive symptoms and sleep disruption can develop. Light therapy, along with outdoor exercise and exposure to daylight (my lunchtime walks become all the more key), can be hugely helpful. I sit in front of this lamp for 15-30 minutes every morning while reading and drinking a cup of coffee during this season. For more information about light therapy, check out https://cet.org//ask-our-experts/light-box-ask-our-experts/ and https://cet.org/how-to-select-a-light-box/

Flu shots for those who are in high risk groups have arrived. - https://mailchi.mp//time-to-get-ready-for-cold-flu-season-

In non-COVID related interest check out this article that briefly sums up a number of the research-backed approaches that we can all take to extend health span. I find longevity research fascinating so much of this is so doable: regular exercise, sticking to a Mediterranean Diet (and minimizing added sugar), various variants of fasting, adequate sleep, time to downshift. Food for thought, at the least.

With back-to-school, lots of kids and parents in our area have needed to get tested for COVID-19 -- many of the regional assessment centres are experiencing very high volumes, and you may have trouble making an appointment due to the high volume on the call lines. Check out this useful site from our health unit that describes the centres across our region where testing is offered -- lots of options to get the test to keep ourselves and our community safe.

Check out this useful graphic comparing typical symptoms of COVID-19, the common cold, and the flu. Of course, for all of you local folks in Ontario, please use the online self-assessment tool at https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/ to decide if you need to get a COVID test.

Tomorrow 7:30-9p, for all those with babies in their lives or soon-to-be, join via Zoom Lynn-Marie Culliton, midwife with the Midland Midwives, and Becky Sloan, nurse with the North Simcoe Family Health Team including the Well Baby Clinic, and me in a panel discussion all about baby. We’ll talk about different topics to help babies and their families have the best possible start in life. We’ll look forward to answering questions from the audience too. Should be fun! Free to register.

Effective Friday, August 28 the Midland COVID-19 Assessment Centre will be moving from its current location at 845 King Street, Midland, to its new location at ...1156 St. Andrews Drive, Midland. The new Assessment Centre is located in the clinic building in the Georgian Bay General Hospital’s (GBGH) Midland site parking lot. Appointments for swabbing can be booked via phone by calling 705-529-1025. The call centre scheduling appointments is open seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. http://gbgh.on.ca/midland-covid-19-assessment-centre-reloc/ À compter du vendredi 28 août, le Centre d’évaluation COVID-19 de Midland déménagera de son emplacement actuel (845 King Street, Midland), à son nouvel emplacement -1156 St. Andrews Drive, Midland. Le nouveau centre d’évaluation est situé dans le bâtiment de la clinique du terrain de stationnement du site Midland de l’Hôpital général de la baie Georgienne (HGBG). Les rendez-vous pour les prélèvements d’écouvillon peuvent être réservés par téléphone en appelant le 705-529-1025. Le centre d’appels est ouvert sept jours sur sept de 8 h à 20 h pour prendre rendez-vous. http://gbgh.on.ca//le-centre-devaluation-covid-19-de-midl/

I, along with both the nurse who runs the FHT well-baby program and a midwife from the Midland Midwives, will be speaking on the panel for this event should be a fun and informative evening all about babies. Please join us!

COVID is complex. As so many of us are looking for information as we work to understand what going back to school means in the COVID era and what is safe and reasonable as communities and economies open up, check out this useful update.

This Friday July 17th our region will enter phase 3 in the COVID pandemic recovery. Some of the most significant changes in my view involve reopening of bars and restaurants for inside dining and drinking, reopening of gyms, and lifting of restrictions on group gatherings, all with limitations regarding physical distancing requirements, masking, and cleaning/disinfection. I have some concerns, primarily around the effect of alcohol on disinhibition and the difficulty in enfor...cing physical distancing in bars/restaurants, the concern regarding the risk of viral transmission amongst groups gathered inside if poor air circulation, and the capacity for our region to do adequate testing, contact tracing, and targeted quarantine to avoid positive cases flaring into community outbreaks. Please see this attached Midland Today article for a for brief summary and the embedded Health Unit document for a full explanation of next steps for our community. Together, we got this. https://www.midlandtoday.ca//stage-3-whats-open-whats-not- See more

Kettle Craft Creations has cloth masks available for a donation to the Midland Public Library! A wonderful local resource.