Who We Are

Kay E. Jewell, MD

Mother, Caregiver since 2004, Physician

I am the founder of The Orthostatic Intolerance (OI) Center. It is a combination of all the threads of my personal and professional life. I have always been interested in healthcare and how it works (or doesn't work) to make people's health better - with a special interest in how we talk with each other - doctor to patient and patient to doctor.

About 1970, I was a founding member of a local food co-operative where we introduced organic foods and other environmental issues, things that have become common-place today. I did the research on storing grains, nuts, and vegetables. In college, I majored in music therapy.

I received my medical degree from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.  I did an Internal Medicine residency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and fellowship training in psychiatry and geriatrics at the Middleton VA in Madison, Wisconsin.   I was the Medical Director of an 800-bed nursing home.  I worked at Mendota Mental Health Institute, the state psychiatric hospital, providing medical care for all ages,  including prisoners. 

I have worked in quality and safety issues at the state and national levels for 32 years with nursing homes, home health, hospice, hospitals and physicians. I started out working with the Wisconsin QIO.  In 1996, I started as a physician (Medical Officer) at the national office for CMS (Medicare) in Baltimore, MD. I was introduced to another level of "alternative healthcare" at Medicare. Professionals would bring in their research for Medicare to review and possibly cover for Medicare beneficiaries. I was impressed by the wide range of "non-traditional" healthcare that had evidence that it worked but the language of the Medicare law kept it from being covered.

It was that experience that led me to do additional training in Complementary or Alternative Medicine when I left Medicare. It only seemed responsible that I knew something about it if patients were going to ask for my opinion about whether it worked. I am a skeptic by nature and tried alot of the treatments on myself before I started to appreciate the truth to the clinical work being done. I learned about and used energetic healing, herbs and essential oils. I was a founding diplomat in the American Board of Holistic Medicine and faculty at training courses. I was a Board Member of the American Holistic Medical Association. I attended national conferences, trained in Tai Chi and Chi Gong.

After a meeting in Toronto, I was sitting in an airport in San Francisco, waiting for my connecting flight to Ashland Oregon when I started talking with a man who taught Coactive Coaching. I realized it was the approach to communication that I was looking for - a way to work with people as a coach. After I finished training in Life Coaching, I took courses in motivational interviewing and master's level courses in health promotion.

In recent years, I have become caregiver to 4 family members with various health problems, supported them through 16 hospitalizations in just 1 year and helped with home care for homebound family member. I have come to personally experience that gap between what the traditional medical profession knows and understands about medical problems and healing and what the patient/family need to make the journey to health.

More important, I have learned that the biggest challenge is find joy and meaning in every day - even when you are homebound and cannot "do" anything you want to do or what family or friends consider "important". That has brought me to "joyful living today" - the beginning of my journey out of being a Type A physician!

We cannot wait for some distant day in the future to find joy - we need to find a little every day - as we build toward the future. We need to savor the littlest joy or interaction with our loved ones, be kind to ourselves and continue to grow and be grateful, to live with grace and love.

So that is where this new journey begins - sharing with you.

Kay E. Jewell, MD

    Mother, Caregiver since 2004

My Daughter - Ms. xxx

Despite her interest, support and passion for the creation of this website, she is a little reticent about becoming so visible. She became ill in 2003 and housebound in 2009. The isolation has taken its toll and she is working her way back to connecting with others. When she is ready, she will share her story and insight herself. In the meantime, I will honor her request to stay invisible. I will continue to include her comments and observations in the material we share.

Our Support System

As many of you already know, our pets provide a great deal of unconditional support, especially when we are not feeling well. We have had our 2 cats since 1997. They have traveled with us to Oregon and back again. They have loved us and taught us well!

 

This is Patches. She was my cat. She loved to play and would bring me a skein of yarn for her to chase. If I failed to pay attention to her in the moment, she would get on my desk and push things off, one by one. It didn't matter if I started to pay attention. The moment had passed and I had failed the test! She became ill the summer of 2011 and died. Even in her illness and passing, she continued to teach us about love and love. I miss her terribly.

 

 

 

 

This is Blakie. She is Ms. A's cat. Blakie has spent many hours lying beside her, keeping her company, listening to her dreams, her fears, her rants and her joys.

Blakie developed cancer in her mouth and is no longer with us on the earth plane - but she is very much with us everyday in our hearts. I am sure I do not miss her near as much as my daughter does. Blakie was her savior through many of the long hours these past 8 years.