Greetings to the good People of DaVita !

It is Wednesday mid-day, our final day at our cottage in northern Wisconsin. I think I will escape with about 3.0 hours of work today, not as bad as I feared. I hope to do better during the 3 vacation days I have booked for next week, although there is so much going on I know there will be some “pollution”. Life’s rich pageant!

My shoulder was pretty dead tired yesterday, after the 3 prior days of big therapy sessions. So I pulled things back to 16 sets of therapy. I will take it back up today!

I also did the 32 minutes of cardio, and about 5 minutes of quiet time/meditation, I just could not quite settle down for longer.

I am reading a couple of good books, the first is about the war with the Philippines back around 1900, and the second is about the real life stories of 4 young Hispanic women being raised in the Denver area, called “Just like us.” Helen Thorpe is the author of the latter book.

That is it for now, I want to get back down to the family! I hope each of you is reaching your MTM goals !! I will have some participation data soon, we will learn more about the 2800 teammates we are in solidarity with!!

Ciao! KT

Greetings to the good people of DaVita, Inc.

It is Monday afternoon.  My little vacation (Monday to Wednesday) is getting a bit more polluted than I hoped.  I only worked 1.5 hours on Saturday, and 2.0 on Sunday, that is okay.  But I am getting hit with about 4 hours today, we have a few little emergencies going on.  Oh well, if one takes the CEO job some of this comes with the territory.

BUT I am doing great exercise!   32 minutes of cardio on Saturday, Sunday and today!  Plus very robust PT.  As I think I mentioned, I will pass along the total number of reps of different PT exercises I am doing, so you can see that.  Once I return to the Casa (our headquarters) I will provide them with the detail to complete the log that you can look at on the MTM site.  On Saturday I did a total of 27 sets of various PT exercises, and on Sunday 27.  My arm and shoulder are pretty darn sore, but I am thinking that is a good soreness as we strive to break down the scar tissue blocking range of motion.  Game On!

My body feels so happy after those 70 minute sessions of cardio and PT.  And I get excited when I can move my arm somewhere new – for example I can now put on and take off t-shirts, all by myself.  I also took a drink of water holding a glass in my right hand.  (it had to be a small glass with a straight side, buy hey, that’s still progress!).  I am also getting reasonable sleep each night, and taking long walks with my wife, close friends, and as of today, with my son.  We have some great talks about life on these walks.

I hope each of you had a great MTM weekend!  There are now over 2800 teammates cheering you on, and I love it!

One for All, KT

Yo DaVita !!

First let me say I love the notes that are sent in, I read every one.  I will not be able to answer every one, but will do my best to answer some.

Second, it is Saturday night, I am at our cottage in Wisconsin.  I have been coming up here every year of my life, I absolutely love it.

Third, both yesterday late afternoon, and today, I did MONSTER physical therapy plus solid cardio !!!  Woohoo!

Given I can’t fax my results and they need to be converted into points/minutes, I will start reporting the total number of “PT sets” I do in a day.  That way the MTM crew can convert them into the right scoring.  Yesterday I did 31 DISCRETE PT SETS, on top of 36 minutes of cardio on the bike.

I also took two brisk walks, total of about 4 miles.  I cannot run yet, shoulder must heal more first.

I hope you had a great MTM day, here’s to your health !!!

KT

Yo to the Good Citizens of the DaVita Village,

It is Friday I am on a plane from Vermont to Wisconsin.  I was raised in Wisconsin (GO PACKERS), we have a family cottage in the north, and I am going to stay for the weekend and 3 days of partial vacation next week.  I hope each of you USES each day of your vacation, it is so good for your health and relationships!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a mediocre MTM day for me.  I wanted to get 5 hours of sleep on Wednesday night – that meant I only had time for a partial PT set before I had to leave home to go to the airport.  I did a little on the plane, but it is pretty awkward in the little aisle. Once I finally landed in Vermont I had an hour drive to the meeting location, and then I went straight into a meeting, then presentation, then mixer, then dinner, then post-dinner program.  It was GREAT, over 100 DaVita leaders and 80 spouses, we gave some core value awards and did some serious reflecting on our Mission & Values.  But it meant an 11 pm return to my room.  I did some good PT then, I need to figure out how to get my updated log to OOTM (Office of the Mayor, my assistants) so they can attach it.  When I am on the road the log will be a little behind the blog.

I hope many of you have attended the Village Celebration dinners we have been able to fund each of the last 5 years.  Last year we had over 50,000 teammates and spouses attend, and I hope there were a couple Core Value awards given at each one!  That is the deal, we will fund those dinners every year we can, IF the dinners include our little Village Celebration video and some CV awards.

I am off to a decent start on PT today, in and around several business calls.   I should get to our cottage about 4 pm, and will do some strong stuff PT at that point.  I also hope to get some cardio.  I think I need to change my cardio goal to 5x per week.   I just will not be able to do my physical therapy AND my cardio every day, there are not enough minutes if I have plane flights or late dinners two nights in a row.  But I can hit 5.  I need to try to hit the PT at the full 7, as best I can.

We are now over 2700 teammates!  Just picture being in a room, being in a theatre, with 2699 teammates watching you exercise, cheering you on, applauding your daily discipline !

Time to attack hundreds of emails.  I hope you are having a great MTM day !    KT

Good Morning DaVita Teammates !

MTM 9 rolls on, almost 2500 strong, linking our arms together as we march towards a healthier life!

It is Thursday am, I am on a plane heading to a business meeting in Vermont.  But let me double back a bit …

My PT session yesterday morning was somewhat brutal (does it make sense for something to be “somewhat brutal?”).  It started with 30 minutes of deep tissue massage, which in my case is painful but essential to loosening up the tissue.  The second half was spent doing a subset of my daily exercises.  Some of them she led my arm and shoulder around, to try to expand my Range of Motion in a way that the patient cannot, because there is not enough muscle left after the x weeks without any movement.  Some of them I did myself, so she could review technique.

About half of the stuff hurts, because you are trying to break thru resistance and expand the Range of Motion.  My surgery was pretty severe, so they told me right up front I was going to have to wait much longer to start more aggressive PT, because they needed to make sure a bunch of the healing was done.  Unfortunately that means the tissue et al has had more time to settle and solidify, and so breaking and loosening it up will be more difficult.  Life’s rich pageant!

I have had some big victories in the last 3 weeks (the accident was 10 weeks ago)!.  I can now dress myself with about 80% of normal clothing (thank God for Hawaiian shirts which I wore for the first 4 weeks out of the hospital).  Also now on most days if I want to move my arm from resting on my leg to a table or arm rest I can do it!  For the prior 8 weeks I would have to take my left hand, grab my right hand at the wrist, pick it up, and move it to the new place.  If the counter or whatever is too high I still have to pick up my right hand with my left.   I can also shake hands, as long as I just put my hand out but leave my elbow tucked against my torso.

We do not know how much range of motion I will ultimately get back, my glenoid (the shoulder socket) was shattered and so required pretty radical reconstruction. and my new nickname could be Titanium Man.  But my goal is to get back to where I can swim as part of my exercise regimen.  And throw a ball with the grand-kids I hope to have one day.  You get the picture.  But first I have to get to the point where I can lift my arm up more than a few inches.  The journey continues …

After PT I raced into the Casa for meetings for the rest of the day – Compliance, recruiting, an acquisition, those were some of the topics.  I do some PT exercises in the meetings, there is no way I would come close to the daily regimen without doing that, and teammates get used to it.  In addition some of the flexion exercises are best done in 6-7 small batches through the day, not 1-2 longer ones.

I love our building, La Casa del Mundo … hope you all have a chance to visit some day.

I then had a quiet dinner at an Asian restaurant while I worked on a presentation I will be giving today.  After that I headed to the skilled nursing facility where my mom is, and had a wonderful 90 minutes with her.  Then the governor called out of the blue and we spent an hour on a number of topics.  At 10 pm I headed home from my mom’s, and did a little more PT, followed by putting ice on my shoulder and torso.   On the days I have a live session with the PT I do less of the exercises myself, of course.  I spent 8 minutes in the hot tub meditating before bed.   If you recall I did 30 minutes of good cardio on my lifecycle at home before I went to PT, so I did get that in

I hope each of you had a successful Match the Mayor day, where you did what you said you would do!  Remember there are 2400 of us rooting for you, wanting the best for you according to whatever goal you set!

Carpe Diem!!!  Yours in health !!!           Your Mayor, KT

Good Morning DaVitaLand, I am reporting in on Tuesday Day 2 of MTM IX  (is that right, this is #9?  Time flies) … with some early reporting on today, Day 3 ..

On Day 3 I already did 6 of my rehab exercises early this am.  My PT log will be posted soon so you get a sense of the menu. In addition I am about to go to the PT for a personal session, which will be an additional 60 minutes.  I also already did 30 minutes of cardio on the lifecycle (listening to voicemails as I pedaled, so good efficiency!).

Yesterday I did about 12 of my exercises, I will have to check the exact log.  I also did 8 minutes of meditation (in the hot tub, I hope that does not disqualify the minutes).

I am in Denver today, and fly to the east coast for a meeting tomorrow.  My sleep is still quite disrupted by the accident and its aftermath, so the early morning sessions and flights are a little tougher than usual.

But with the help of the 2000 teammates in MTM, I will persevere!

Have a good day, KT

Greetings to the Good People of the DaVita Village !

Welcome to Match the Mayor!    The short period where thousands of us band together and encourage each other to take clear steps towards a healthier life.  In whatever form makes sense for each individual.

I am sorry I am getting this out a day late.  I am a bit under the weather, and will open up more communication shortly I hope.

My core MTM goal is to do an average of 65% of  my Physical Therapy protocol 7 days a week.  Tomorrow I will attach the protocol, I just got a new one from my PT and it is being typed up into log form so I can track my adherence.

I will also have exercise minutes on the grid, as i was recently cleared to get back on the lifecycle.  So good to get some cardio back!

Some of you know I had a bad bike injury 64 days ago, which explains why this year I need to have PT as my core goal.   I can tell you a bit more about all of that over the coming blogs.

I hope each of you is off to a good start!  I hope many of you have a partner – but for those who do not, you have ALL of us as a partner.  Over 2000 teammates signed up before Day One.

One for All & All for One …..    Your Mayor, KT

Good Morning Team !!

This unfortunately could be my last journal entry.  I have the Board of Directors today and tomorrow, which means I am running from first thing after I type this until late tonight, and then first thing tomorrow.  When the meeting ends tomorrow afternoon I race straight to the airport to fly to California.  Once I land I race straight to a dinner in a camp called The Bohemian Grove.  I am there until Monday at noon.  There are no laptops or cell phones allowed.  It is a time for hearing speakers, listening to music, watching plays, and exercise.  I can do work, but it is planning work with good old fashioned paper and pen.

I will have only been home 2 mornings out of the final 18 or so within this MTM stretch.  So I don’t know what my weight is, but I am not on track to hit the goal by this Sunday.  That is the bad news, 2 years in a row.

The good news is I definitely ate more produce, and developed some new habits.  Like the 2 serving smoothie I am eating/drinking right now.  This part of MTM will make a lasting difference for me, taking me one step further than last year’s produce goal which got me going in the right direction.

The other good news is I definitely did more quiet time than I would have otherwise.  I am not sure if I got this over the hump to be a new habit now.

On the exercise front, I did not do anything more or less than usual.  I cherish my exercise, and consider it to be an obligation to give it to my body, given all I put my body through as a part of being Mayor of our Village with 67,000 teammates in 11 countries.

I hope each of you have developed momentum and a new habit or two in our collective quest for a healthier life.   I am glad we are a Community First and a Company Second, and that we band together to support each other in team efforts like this.

One for All & All for One.  Not just a slogan to some of us.   Your Mayor, KT

Yo DaVita!

It is Sunday afternoon.  Javier and I did a 2 hour hike with some excellent vertical, so we will both be way over on steps.  I had 2 servings of fruit in my breakfast smoothie, and another 2 servings at lunch – a banana and a bowl of mixed berries.  So I will clear the mark on produce today!

The former Ambassador to Iraq was a great dinner guest last night.  And the cyber security/warfare speaker was good.

Now I have to get some email and scheduling done!  I hope you are all doing well!   KT

Yo DaVita Village

It is Saturday morning.  I would like to start by congratulating Uma, my companion, and Stephanie, JR’s companion, for their impressive MTM work.  Perhaps I will tell the program operators not to include companions in the future, as they make me look bad.  Life’s rich pageant!

I am up at our Colorado mountain cabin, with 8 guys.  Old and dear friends.  We call it FRED weekend.  Friendship, Relaxation, Exercise, and Discourse.  I put it on once a year.

We will go out for a big mountain bike ride this am.  Lots of single track, lots of tough vertical.  Awesome workout.  Then in the late afternoon we have 2 guest speakers, one a professor active in cyber security and the other a former ambassador to Iraq, during the war.  Should be fascinating.

Yesterday I did 26 minutes of life cycle in the am, and then got 45 minutes of outside mountain biking before we all had dinner.  I was mountain biking with a young and fit guy, so i got psyched up and made it up a section (the Larkspur Lunge) I have never made before without having to walk during that steep stretch.  Also set a personal record of 28:22 to the end of the climb.  Fun to coast back to the cabin after that.

This is a good group, all but one have worked for the Village.  One of them is now CEO of a Radiology company.  A second is CEO of an Anesthesiology company.  A third is CEO of a Vet Hospital company.  One is a former member of Board of Directors and a mentor and coach for many of our young execs, another is currently on the Board.  JR is here as well.  At dinner I put out a couple table questions that each person answers, which makes for a distinctively meaningful conversation.

The ride we will do this am is a tough one for me, because the single track gets so narrow on some of the climbs.  I have a hard time staying on the track, and once you go off you are typically toast because you cannot keep going.  I have only made it up all 4 hills without getting off the bike one time.  I was 10 pounds lighter then, however.  Yikes.  The guys riding with me this am are all 10-15 years younger.

Speaking of weight I was down to 194.8 yesterday.  Unfortunately I had two huge bowls of ice cream late last night, after everyone else had gone to bed, after an evening involving non-trivial wine consumption.  Given we are having grilled burgers for lunch, this is not looking like a great MTM weekend from a calorie perspective.

I hope you have a great weekend!  Savor the adventure of life, as I am with these friends – all of whom have taken stuff from their experience in the Village, and are proud to point it out as they send forth ripples of citizen leadership.

One for All & All for One.   Your Mayor, KT