Rural Healthcare Revival

Transcript

Meeting Dr. Bockenberg

Speaker 1 0:00

Oh , there we go .

Speaker 2 0:01

Okay , it's on now .

Speaker 1 0:03

If you hit the start button , it seems to work better . Hey , good morning everybody . This is Mike with the Martin County Stars Newsmakers podcast , and I've got with me today Dr Timothy Bockenberg . I say that correctly .

Speaker 2 0:15

Yes , you do .

Speaker 1 0:16

Okay , because you know I have trouble .

Speaker 2 0:19

Bockenberg is German for stream in the mountain .

Speaker 1 0:22

Stream in the mountains . I have Dr Stream in the Mountains with me today . We've known each other a long time . He goes back about maybe 15 , 17 years . He was my doctor for a long time and he retired on me and now he's back . And now

New Clinic Services in Trimont

Speaker 1 0:40

he's back . Dr Backeberg , you're kind of heading up this clinic here in Tremont . It's been kind of a long haul , hasn't it ?

Speaker 2 0:50

Yeah , I'm not really heading it up , but yeah , I'm going to be there when Wyndham is there , okay , and Wyndham is going to start out with . Wyndham is going to start out with specialists coming over and specialist and nurse practitioners on Monday , tuesday and Thursdays . They're going to have Dr Kamlitz and her colleague in general surgery most likely coming to see patients , coming to see patients , and then they're going to have Lori Fett , who is a nurse practitioner who does urology , is going to also be here .

Speaker 1 1:30

Okay , so what kind of services are they going to offer ?

Speaker 2 1:33

They're going to offer general surgery services and .

Speaker 1 1:37

Right here in our little clinic .

Speaker 2 1:39

Well , they'll do outpatient procedures so they'll be able to do skin removals , lesion removals .

Speaker 1 1:44

They'll be able to do skin removals lesion removals .

Speaker 2 1:46

They'll be able to do preoperative evaluations for any type of general surgery procedures . So Dr Kamlitz had worked at Fairmont Mayo for a long time and so there's a lot of patients that she did colonoscopies on . Oh , okay , people will be able to do a colonoscopy follow-up or get scheduled for their colonoscopies , and with colonoscopies they are recommending that that start at 45 , age 45 . And so if you're 45 , you're going to need that for screening for colon cancer , and so she could do those types of things . She could see you in evaluation . She won't do the colonoscopy there , no , but she would check things out and explain the procedure to you and then she would take the procedure back to Schedule it , schedule it in Wyndham .

Speaker 1 2:40

Back in Wyndham ? Yeah , okay , well , I mean it sounds like they could have a lab there Back in Wyndham .

Speaker 2 2:43

Yeah , okay , well , I mean it sounds like they're going to have a lab there . There's going to be a lab there .

Speaker 1 2:46

Okay , so they can go ahead and take blood work and such .

Speaker 2 2:48

Yeah , at first the lab will probably drop a lot and take the blood work back to Wyndham to be processed and urinalyses . There'll be some what are called wave labs that'll be able to be done there , most likely to I'm not sure exactly what . They will be able to tell you that better than I will , because it's .

Speaker 1 3:11

But that's their thing , yeah yeah and uh .

Speaker 2 3:14

They've told me I can schedule people for routine , routine fasting labs

Appointment Information and Availability

Speaker 2 3:20

okay all right . Blood pressure pressure and diabetes and high cholesterol types of problems .

Speaker 1 3:29

This is going to be really good for the community because you know , if somebody's just got a cold or something and it just doesn't feel well , they can just drop into the clinic here rather than drive clearly into Fairmont or Wyndham or wherever . When you don't feel well , that's the last thing you want to do is go for a drive . Yeah .

Speaker 2 3:47

My clinics will be in the morning on Monday , tuesday and Thursday when they're here , okay , and those will be by appointment through my . I'll have a telephone number that Mike will share with you later , and so you just call that number up and then we'll have appointments . I'll see appointments people for general things like blood pressure and diabetes and whatever . But on the day of the , if you're sick that day , you certainly can call and I'd be happy to help you that day if I'm available . Sure , sure , but being semi-retired , like Mike said , I'm doing more vacationing than I did before .

Speaker 1 4:38

Yeah well , there's nothing wrong with that either .

Speaker 2 4:40

No , last week we took my little 11-year-old to dig diamonds in Arkansas and you got a big one , did you ? He didn't find a diamond , but we did find some very pretty gemstones there you go . At the Trader Diamond State .

Speaker 1 4:57

Well , it's worth the trip either way , it was very good .

Speaker 2 5:00

He enjoyed it .

Speaker 1 5:01

Yeah .

Speaker 2 5:01

And it was really hot though in Arkansas .

Speaker 1 5:04

Yeah , arkansas can get kind of— I would recommend it , yeah , and it was really hot , though , in Arkansas . Yeah , arkansas can get kind of .

Speaker 2 5:05

I would recommend it in August .

Speaker 1 5:07

Yeah , you can get a little muggy down there .

Speaker 2 5:08

Yeah , very , it was about 95 to 105 . Yeah , it was about , I would say , 70 to 80% humidity . Yeah , that's a little nasty yeah it was , but it's the eighth

House Calls and Patient Relationships

Speaker 2 5:20

largest diamond reserve .

Speaker 1 5:22

Is it really ?

Speaker 2 5:27

Yeah , eighth largest diamond reserve , is it really ?

Speaker 1 5:28

yeah , the diamond crater uh state park . Down there it's 37 and a half acres , okay , so it's , it's a go , just not in august , right gotcha yeah , okay , there was a guy from stewardville , a couple of brothers from stewardville .

Speaker 2 5:38

They're farmers and heavy equipment operators over there and , um , they collect a lot of stones and it was in the newspaper that they had gotten a 3.8 carat diamond down there . They go three times a year . Wow , they go three times a year . And when they aren't farming and when they aren't doing— .

Speaker 1 6:02

So if they find that , do they get to keep it .

Speaker 2 6:04

Yeah , you get to keep it . Wow , yeah , you have to pay—if you're an adult , you have to pay like $15 to go into it and for kids it's $7.50 . The lady that was one of the ladies at the visitor center said that about one in 200 people find a diamond . Really Okay , yeah , and most of the diamonds aren't . You know , they're not big .

Speaker 1 6:28

No .

Speaker 2 6:29

But there has been huge diamonds taken out of there .

Speaker 1 6:32

Well , you know , it's the adventure .

Speaker 2 6:35

Yeah , it's . You know , it's an old volcano that erupted over 150 million years ago . Did you get a T-shirt ? My kid did yeah .

Speaker 1 6:48

That's why I go on vacation is to get T-shirts . Yeah , yeah , all right . So now , when does the clinic kick off ? You told me earlier .

Speaker 2 6:57

They're going to open next Monday , on the 25th Monday , yeah . So yeah , any time the 25th you can call . Start making appointments , appointments yeah , I need to still talk to them . I have had a number of my patients calling and talking , and so I'm going to have to call them up here shortly to get appointments for next week .

Speaker 1 7:22

Tell them you're ready to go . Let's do this .

Speaker 2 7:25

It's an extension of my house calls practice .

Speaker 1 7:27

I was just going to say . You're still seeing patients at the Ridge and then here in Seasons too , do you not ?

Speaker 2 7:33

I haven't been seeing patients at Seasons . Oh , you haven't okay , I know that there's been some discussions that maybe I should do that , but that's not something I've talked to them about . Oh okay , People in the community . There are some people in the community that would like me to do that .

Speaker 1 7:50

Yeah , sure .

Speaker 2 7:50

But we need to talk to the people in the NIH seasons before I do something like that Sure , of course . And but no , it's mainly been at temperate secretion .

Speaker 1 8:00

Some house calls in Jackson County and Martin County we were talking about that a minute ago and I didn't realize . Doctors were still making house calls . That's a nice feature well , that's fun .

Speaker 2 8:14

You know , the

Healthy Eating and Local Agriculture

Speaker 2 8:15

people that I've been patients with that have been my patients for a long time , and my one patient , he's really . He's a lot of fun and it's normally we have . He'll , he'll make me some tea and tea and then there's a , there's some something cooked and then we , we , but we check is check the things we need to check Sure .

Speaker 1 8:40

We fill the medications . Okay . So a little adage an apple a day keeps a doctor away , Is that true ?

Speaker 2 8:48

We don't eat apples .

Speaker 1 8:53

Candy brought me an apple the other day . I was just sitting here working and she goes here . She brought me a piece of fruit and an apple and I thought about that . I thought , yep , no doctor today .

Speaker 2 9:01

Yeah , Maybe apple crisp , maybe apple crisp .

Speaker 1 9:09

I had a nurse ask me a couple of months ago . She said , mike , do you eat a lot of fruit ? I said , do fig newtons count ? She gave me a terrible look . She said no . I said well , nottons count . She gave me a terrible look . He said no . I said well , not as much as you think . Yeah .

Speaker 2 9:23

No , I should eat , I know , two servings of fruit a day and five servings of , and the fresher the better . If you're going to do two servings of fresh fruit and five servings of fresh vegetables , Okay , so here's my question then A serving , what's a serving size then ?

Speaker 1 9:42

Is it an apple , one apple , a serving ?

Speaker 2 9:45

One apple would be a serving , one banana , one orange or one pear .

Speaker 1 9:52

Oh , I'm good , we do that pretty much every day .

Speaker 2 9:54

Yeah , and then a serving of a side salad , that would be a serving Now that there's all these fresh vegetables available . Tomatoes , you know a couple of tomatoes would probably be a serving . Small , depending a large tomato , that would be one serving . Obviously , sure , fresh tomato . Cucumbers , you know a cucumber salad , or like half of a small cucumber , would be considered a dessert . Green beans yeah , you know a handful of cherry tomatoes .

Speaker 1 10:29

Oh , those are great . Yeah , very good yeah .

Speaker 2 10:31

And they're really good for you .

Speaker 1 10:32

We've got some growing on a vine behind the place , and that last windstorm about a month ago boy , it knocked it over , broke it . It's not producing like it was , but still , though , they're good .

Speaker 2 10:45

Well there's . You know . It's fortunate for Trimont that they have the town center . There's fresh vegetables available in there . That's unusual for a lot of little towns in Minnesota . Yeah , that's true , or in any part of rural America , and we have probably some of the most productive and wonderful agricultural land in the world in Martin County .

Speaker 1 11:13

Yeah , obviously .

Speaker 2 11:14

And so if people want a garden , they can certainly produce about anything they want and about as much as they want .

Speaker 1 11:21

Yeah , I shared with somebody the other day . I grew up in the city not the cities , but in a city , wichita , kansas , and you know that's farmland down there , but not in the city . I didn't even know anybody who had a garden in their backyard as a kid growing up .

Speaker 2 11:36

Well , that's not as great of a farmland down there either . Well , okay , my mom is backyard as a kid growing up . Well , that's not as great of a farmland down there either .

Speaker 1 11:40

Well , okay , my mom is from .

Speaker 2 11:42

My mom was born in ashland , kansas . Oh yeah , 105 years ago actually wow this week and she was the eighth of 12 kids and ashland is red hills . The , the Red Hill you know in southwest Kansas just by Dodge City Yep and they can grow wheat .

Speaker 1 12:04

Yeah .

Speaker 2 12:06

And then like down in Arkansas and Mississippi and Georgia that's , there's not much topsoil down there , right , I mean , you know , I mean my friends in Mississippi . They can have a garden , but they have to have a raised garden and have compost in it . When I went to visit them , there was new construction going on near the lake that they lived on . And when you strip down to build a house here , if you do that , there's weeds growing in the— but they strip the six inches of topsoil in those pine forests and it gets down to that red clay and nothing— there's nothing there .

Speaker 2 12:52

Nothing , no weed was even growing there , and so it's not very productive . It's not , as it's not wonderfully productive , as like our land here .

Speaker 1 13:00

No .

Speaker 2 13:01

You put seeds in here and you know we've had beautiful rains this this summer and the crops look just gorgeous . Yeah , they do .

Speaker 1 13:09

Danelle got a little too much rain the other day but Mm-hmm , but otherwise , yeah , all right . So starting Monday they can start making calls , or actually they can start making calls probably now . Well , probably not oh okay , not quite , yet Not quite .

Speaker 2 13:24

But on Monday for sure . For sure , okay , yeah , because yeah , we're going to be gone this weekend .

Speaker 1 13:30

And you'll be there Monday , Tuesdays , Thursdays .

Speaker 2 13:31

I'll be there Monday , Tuesday and Thursday in the morning , In mornings , only In the morning yeah , yeah , okay , and then Wyndham Health will be staffing otherwise . Yeah , wyndham Health's going to be there , right , I'm just basically there when Wyndham Health is there .

Speaker 1 13:44

Oh , I see Okay , but they'll still be there , even when you're not .

Speaker 2 13:51

They told me that they were . Yeah , Wednesday , yeah , If I'm gone , if I have to go to a conference or if I'm on vacation or something , they'll be there with their specialists . Their specialists are going to be there .

Speaker 1 13:59

And their specialists go through that for me one time .

Speaker 2 14:02

They're going to have general surgery with either Dr Kamlitz or their new general surgeon Okay , Another general surgeon and then they're going to have urology with Lori Fett who's ? A nurse practitioner .

Speaker 1 14:16

Right , okay , well , sounds good and

Clinic Contact Details and Wrap-up

Speaker 1 14:20

I'll get that number to the folks here when we check it for sure . That sounds good . All right , all right . Well , dr Bockenberg , it's been good having you today . Thank you so much for stopping in . I'm looking forward to the clinic in Trimont . It's really going to be a boost for TrMob . We need more activity like this here .

Speaker 2 14:37

I think it'll be good .

Speaker 1 14:38

I agree . So thank you for taking that venture on . I know you're getting close to saying goodbye adios for the last time .

Speaker 2 14:46

Well , one reason we wanted to partner with Mike Ward and I wanted to partner with Wyndham is that we wanted to have somebody who would keep going well after I retire .

Speaker 1 14:59

Okay , well , that's a good choice .

Speaker 2 15:01

I'm going to retire , which is going to be a while , yeah .

Speaker 1 15:04

Okay , well , that's a good choice . So thank you so much . All right , folks , that's it with Dr Wackenberg here at the Newspaker's Podcast and we'll be back in a minute . All right , just checked with Dr Wachenberg and that number to the clinic is 507-236-0040 . And you can start calling that anytime . Start setting up your appointments . They open Monday . Monday , folks , it's so nice to have Dr Wachenberg with me today . Also , it's been good being here and tell you what .

Speaker 1 15:32

We've got lots going on . The fair just ended . We've got lots going on , uh , the fair just ended . We've got an issue coming out , um , well , actually today , and that issue has all kinds of fair pictures . Next week's issue we'll have a lot more , uh , some of the results . Okay , so check out both of them and you see how you place . Uh , I'll tell you what , though don pot off . I know don nice , nice and she flat cleaned up at the fair . She won so many awards it's not even funny , but so , anyway , congratulations to all of our fair winners and we look forward to maybe we can get a couple of the fair winners on . That'd be nice .

Speaker 1 16:11

Also , sports starting up . Tonight there's a volleyball game and let me see the first football game . August 29th Friday night , the 29th , so another week or so and then , yeah , I guess that's next week , isn't it ? And that's an away game , the first home game . They have a tailgate party coming here shortly and I'm looking forward to that . They'll be playing locally in Tremont at the stadium here in Tremont , the football field , so we're looking forward to that . They'll be playing locally in Trimont at the stadium here in Trimont football field . So we're looking forward to all those things . It should be a fun fall and I'm looking forward to being involved with that .

Speaker 1 16:44

Listen , by the way , if you are into sports and you like to cover sports , give me a call . My number is 507-848-3261 , because I could use help with my sports , sports writing and such . I only have so much time and I have lots of sports to cover , so I could use a sports reporter . If you're interested , give me a call . All right , we can talk . All right , other than that , folks have a great week and I'll talk to you later . Bye .