Now that Memorial Day weekend is behind us, summer is officially here. For those of you living in Mississippi, it can be argued summer started weeks ago when we were having daily record high temperatures. Regardless, school is out for the kids now, summer camps are starting and people all around have their vacations set with the thought of a warm beach and a cold drink to help serve as motivation to get through these long days.

    My wife was born on July 4, so despite the fact that America will celebrate the holiday as the day the US adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring the US a new nation, those in my family (me) smart enough to know better can tell you that all of the fireworks will be for my wife’s birthday! To celebrate, we plan to take a trip to Orange Beach for a few days.

    Easter 2018 is now behind us and I hope you all had a chance to spend some time with family and friends over the weekend, donning your favorite pastels. Our firm traditionally takes Good Friday off, which was a much-welcomed break.

    My family spent Saturday at an annual Easter egg hunt hosted by some friends of ours. This year was the first that my kids were old enough to really know what was going on. There were close to 100 kids ranging from ages 1-10 fighting over the plastic eggs filled with various melted chocolate. As they said “go”, it was clear my kids were not ready. Sawyer was a step slow on each egg and Charlotte would take the plastic eggs already split in half to throw in her bag after the big kids had already extracted the goods. All in all, Sawyer got one egg and Charlotte had about 5 half eggs with no prizes.

    As I type this in my office, I have my window open as it is now over 80 degrees. Did I mention it is only March 1? Spring has arrived much quicker than I would have anticipated. While I generally enjoy the longer, warmer days, that also means I have to start cutting my grass, fight off allergies and get in better shape before beach season arrives.

    My wife and I have been walking our kids in the afternoon lately with the change in seasons for exercise and to enjoy the outdoors. Of course, when I say walk, I mean we walk while the kids cruise around the neighborhood in the “blue car”.

    First and foremost, Happy New Year to you all. I know it is too late into January to be saying that, but this is my first blog of the year. We are now past the holiday (and hopefully flu) season and everyone is back on the day-to-day grind. Since my last blog, things have been hectic in my world. We had our second (and hopefully last) bout with the flu, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday party, our first (failed) attempt at a movie and a trip to the Dominican Republic (adults only!). Below are some of the pictures from our last month.

    Christmas has now come and gone, and thankfully for the little ones in my house, Santa made a stop. I assume my kids are still a little young to use Santa as a bargaining chip to be good. They are still not too sure about the “naughty or nice” list. On Christmas Eve, my wife and I tried to explain to them that they needed to go to sleep early, and that if they were good, they would get toys from Santa. My son, Sawyer, took some time to think whether he had been naughty or nice this year....

    I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I traveled to Orange Beach to spend some time with my in-laws, which meant laying on the couch in stretchy pants after overindulging for several days. Of course, this Thanksgiving was a little different as their home is filled with kids running around everywhere, mine included. Sawyer, my two-year-old son, is also in the middle of potty training, so between meals of fried turkey and dressing, I spent a large portion of my time celebrating “tee tee in the potty.” My 18-year-old self would not understand the person I have become.

    When we returned to Madison after our trip, we decided it would be a good idea to pick out our Christmas tree and begin our decorations. This is our first Christmas with both kids walking, so we let the kids help pick out some of our decorations, including the tree. Stephanie and I turned our heads for a split second, and as we glanced back, Sawyer had clearly marked our tree. Needless to say, we bought this one....

    As a kid growing up through the 90's, wrestling (AKA rasslin) was a BIG deal. Every Monday night, my friends and I would gather at one of our houses and watch. Back and forth between WCW and WWF we would flip the channels. Once a month, when we barely had two nickels to rub together, we would somehow scrape enough money to watch the pay-per-view event. We knew it was not “real”, but it was high level entertainment for some rowdy adolescent boys. (However, DO NOT tell the guy below it isn’t real)

My apologies for getting this out late, but we have had some unexpected news in my family. On the morning of September 11, 2017, I lost my grandmother. Therefore 9/11, a day already  synonymous with heart-break and loss, will be even a more memorable day in my life. After fighting sickness for a year, my Jojo took her last breath and went to be with her heavenly Father.

    My grandmother was a caring woman, but she also had a sense of humor. The following Wednesday, my entire family lined the front of the church for a visitation ceremony immediately preceding the funeral. As the line formed, my dad stood to my left, and on my right, in order, was my brother, sister and mom.

    The visitors began to line up through the church, one by one. Many of the people I had known all of my life having grown up in a small community, but others I had not met before. One particular lady who I had never met, was hunched over slowly making her way through the line to give kind words to the family. She spoke to my mother, followed by my siblings, before she approached me. She seemed like a nice woman, and she could not have been a day over 100. She leaned in to hug my neck and asked: “now, you must be Tami’s better half?”

    This week we get to talk about something we all love...MONEY! You can learn a lot about a someone when money gets involved. As Woody Allen once said, “money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.”

    Last week, as I was coming home a little later from work than normal, the UPS driver was pulling up to my house. This is a common occurrence. He could tell I was trying to pull into my driveway, but he was parked where I could not. When we finally made eye contact, he simply walked over to my truck to hand me a package rather than leaving it at my door. I rolled down the window and the man handed over what was clearly a brown packaged box from Amazon. As he went to walk away, he looked back and said: “you are lucky guy. You get a package almost every day.” In reality, “I” rarely get a package, but I could vividly picture my wife in that moment thinking....

    I hope everyone had a fun Fourth of July. My wife, who happens to have been born on July 4, 1984, is quick to remind me that the firework display every year is in celebration of her birth. In my house, I don’t argue that fact. However, when my neighbors were still shooting fireworks at 10:30 PM and I have a sleeping 1 and 2 year old (well, he woke up), I quickly became the old man on the porch screaming at the neighborhood kids. On top of that, my dog, Charlie, was essentially having a panic attack. As I told Charlie...

    As many of you know, treatment options in MS are changing by the day. I last spoke on the changes to the MS Fee Schedule related to opiates. In an effort to treat without long-term opiate use, physicians, as well as the Commission, are looking for new methods. One of the most modern treatment options, and one being ordered by the Commission routinely, are pain rehabilitation programs. The most popular one in MS is the Pain Rehabilitation Program at Southern Behavioral Medicine Associates. Dr. Geralyn Datz is the Clinical Director of this program, and she was very gracious with her time. She has prepared the article below for my readers which explains the program, success rate and why she feels like it is worth the money long-term. She also tries to dispel any false narratives about programs such as hers. If you have questions or comments after your review, please reach out to myself or Dr. Datz.

    I will now hand the mic over to Dr. Datz. Enjoy!