Olive Rx

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my new primary care physician. The first thing I did when I arrived was fill out a mental health screen. Typically, that's a nonissue, but this time, my results indicated a lot of stress. 

So we had to talk about that.

I gave her a brief summary of what's going on in my life, we agreed that all of it was, in fact, stressful and she asked what I do to cope. I laughed and said, "I ride my horse."

Then, my doctor asked how my horse felt about that. 

I laughed again and told her that sometimes rides aren't actually rides. That's just shorthand for time spent at the barn.

The horse likes attention. I'm pretty sure she's fine with the status quo.

After that, we moved on to other topics, but as I was leaving, my doctor told me that I should continue to go to barn every day.

"No matter how busy you are," she said, "make time to do that. It's important for both your physical and mental health."

That sounded like good advice, so I left her office and went straight to the barn to fill my Olive prescription.

It's a little too early to be certain, but I think I'm really going to like this doctor.