This morning I dropped off the little dingo at a friend’s house for an hour while I drove to town to get a pneumonia vaccine. This fall I plan to get all my shots before the hip replacement. I’m grateful for the research and researchers through the years that made vaccines safe, for my PCP who recommended I get the pneumonia shot, for the shingles and covid vaccines I’ve received over the past few years, for the shots yet to come this fall. I’m grateful for the childhood vaccines my parents made sure I received, and for not getting polio because of that.

I’m grateful for the medical care currently available to us in rural western Colorado, and I understand that rural healthcare throughout the country faces profound, systems level issues including funding, clinical care, and mortality disparities with urban healthcare. We are very fortunate in this, one of the lowest income counties in the state, to have the quality of care we do. I am especially grateful for the excellent care from the providers at the West Elk Clinic just twenty minutes away, and for the kindness of the nurse who stuck me in the arm this morning. I’m grateful for all of the hardworking and compassionate medical providers and first responders in this community.