Doctor Eno (00:01.134)
Hello there and welcome to Thriving While Golden podcast by way of introduction. If this is your first time of hearing me, my name is Dr. Eno Nsima Obot popularly known as Dr. Eno. And this podcast had been on a brief hold, I must admit was about two years and I just uploaded another episode or a new episode last month in which I shared some of my
recent life journey. I've been thinking over the last month exactly how I want to format the podcast moving forward. And so I decided, you know what, I'm going to format this podcast in a way that kind of allows my viewers or my audience in to a little bit about my personal life because I feel that...
When people see so -called thought leaders or experts, they think that they lead these absolutely phenomenal, you know, Cinderella kind of lives with no challenges. And as I may have shared with you, most recently, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of December. Now, there may be a few people who...
would be willing to share that diagnosis with their audience because they may feel it makes them feel some kind of way. And quite frankly, I did feel that way initially, like how does somebody who is athletic, physically fit, eats well, maintains a reasonable body weight, you know, all the things that we say we should do in order to maintain good health, how come she ends up with cancer? And the answer is we don't know. As you know, subsequently we've had...
even royalties being diagnosed with cancer, right? They have access to the world -class medicine. So again, I decided that the format of the podcast was going to be to, you know, just pull the curtain apart and allow some element of vulnerability in to really see who I am as a person behind the scenes or the person behind the lab coat, so to speak.
Doctor Eno (02:18.126)
I also decided when I thought about, oh, you know, should I go look for some big thought leaders and experts to talk about some, you know, topics on gut health and heart health and all that. And I realized, you know what? There are a gajillion podcasts out there that you can listen to if you want to learn about your gut health and your hormonal health and menopause health and all that stuff. But what I wanted to do with this podcast was to highlight
what I want to describe as everyday heroines, everyday women who are living their lives along the mantra of thriving while golden. Because once I hit 50, it was almost like I was supposed to become invisible and begin to plan for retirement and not have that vitality and verve for life. And so what I'm going to be seeking out and highlighting to you,
Because again, when we think about when we hit, when we begin to hit our 50s, there are a number of things that go on with us. Yes, we go through the menopausal changes that may bring on some changes in mood. We may also be going through some life stage changes. For instance, we may have sent off our kids to college. Some of us may be dealing with the breakdown of a long -term relationship or the change of a career.
And so there are a number of things that go into how we perceive ourselves or how we feel about ourselves after age of say 45, 50. And so my mission is going to be to be able to highlight amazing women in their 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s who are still living with vitality, who...
thriving while golden. So I was really excited when I came to that definition of what the podcast would stand for. So quick update about me. This is going to be a short episode, by the way. I don't feel the episode should be, you know, 30 minutes to one and a half hours to two hours. I feel they should be short to the point where you get to listen, maybe while you're walking the dog, running an errand.
Doctor Eno (04:43.022)
And again, you can listen to the older episodes to catch up on some of those, some of the thoughts I've had in past, but real quick about me, I just completed my sixth cycle of chemotherapy last week, which was the first week in April. I'm going to be honest with you. It kicked my butt. I had just assumed that, you know, six cycle, Hey, it's going to be, you know, smooth sailing.
My daughter had volunteered to come in from Baltimore. I was dismissive. I was like, no, you don't need to come in. You know, stay where you are. And they still insisted on coming in. And I'm grateful that they did because it really took a lot out of me. And I am still going through the side effects of chemotherapy. And this is one thing I want to highlight.
In conventional medicine, we feel we've done a great job when we help to, in quotes, prolong life, right? So going through cancer, the goal is to make the cancer go into remission so that I can live my life. But nobody really addresses the side effects of some of our conventional medications, particularly chemotherapy. And I still have surgery and radiation to embark on. And so I feel that this is going to be a great opportunity.
great platform and a great avenue being the patient, doctor being the patient, but the doctor having the ability to utilize functional medicine principles to help mitigate some of the side effects of conventional treatment. So I'll be sharing that with you as I go along my journey as to how it is or what it is I'm doing.
I may not share all in detail because remember, information on this podcast is for educational purposes only. You need to consult your physician. If you're in the Chicagoland area, just in case I did not mention in my last podcast, I have opened a direct primary care practice. You can get more information by going to thrivefunctionalhealth .com. So I know I'm rambling right now, but just as an update, like I said,
Doctor Eno (07:02.382)
went through chemo, finished chemo. The next step is to go through surgery and then ongoing radiation and immunotherapy. So just in case, you know, some of you listened and like, how is she doing? I am doing well. But I wanted to use the last few minutes to really highlight something, something that, that has been a challenge for me. At the same time that I,
started with my diagnosis of cancer, I knew I was going through a career transition, in other words, transitioning out of hospital medicine, and I needed to make a decision what was next. Of course, going through cancer is hard to explain to a new employee, employer, sorry, that, hey, I'm going to be going through chemotherapy every three weeks and, you know, surgery and radiation. So I decided it was like the universe really decided for me that it was time for me to really pivot and create that practice.
that I had been planning to create for years now, but there'd always been a reason why. And so I created my direct primary care practice. But in the meantime, like I said, going through a chemo, depleted, I've had to really be present with the now, right? Like, again, I'm somebody who has always been very good at setting plans and being busy.
And going through cancer is really teaching me to be present with the now and to be satisfied with the now. And I was speaking to my therapist a couple of days back and I realized that I had created all my identity around being that physician, being a busy physician. And so,
one of the challenges I'm having right now is coming to terms with my identity. Now, I mention this because I know there are a number of us who, again, as we go through, it doesn't have to be a critical illness, but as we go through life transitions, we have to come to terms with what that means for our identity. Who are we? How are we being?
Doctor Eno (09:30.798)
and what work do we need to do about our identity? And so I just wanted to highlight that as an invitation that you don't have to have a critical illness, but sometimes it's okay to just step back and say, you know, I've been this certain way in the past because it has worked, busy, career oriented, et cetera. But now,
What does it mean for me right now? Was the busyness a distraction? Was it a distraction from coming to know myself? And so I feel that this cancer journey is really that invitation. As my daughter rightly pointed out when I was grumbled about the fact that I didn't have anywhere to go and I've been at home since February and there's no work to go to.
By the way, speaking about the work, I was traveling 124 miles, working over 12 hours a day. And like I said, this last cycle of chemo really kicked my butt and I had to think to myself, wow, imagine if you had to work, even if you took off maybe a week, you probably couldn't take off more than a week or two, but imagine if you had to work.
or you knew that you had to be somewhere whilst going through chemo, how does that help with healing? And so just being present with not being busy, being present with creating a new identity, because being a functional medicine practitioner and adding myself to that equation so that the people I attract,
into my practice are people who will also be concerned about the well -being of their physician, right? Because it's a community now. It's a different dynamic from conventional medicine where you are a primary care physician for a panel of 2 ,000 patients and all they know is that they have a hard time getting in touch with their physician. And so whenever they demand to get in touch with you,
Doctor Eno (11:53.006)
they expect you to be present, right? So my goal is to create a practice that nurtures me as much as I nurture my patients and show them how they can optimize their health and show them how they can be in touch with their identity because that's a holistic approach and I'm finding it exciting.
And it's also scary, but I know that at the end of this journey, there's going to be so much wealth of knowledge, so much uncovering of wisdom that I can't wait to share. And so that is why with this podcast, with the new format is taken, it's going to be allowing you to, you know, take a look behind the scenes of
what it means to journey through an illness and still live purpose. So like I said, I'll be bringing on everyday people. I'm looking forward to that. If there is anybody that you have in mind that you want to have showcased on the podcast, because you know, podcasts, they do live forever in the ethosphere, right? So if there's anybody that you would like to have highlighted.
to have their story inspire other women and men over 50 so that we don't feel that we're a forgotten segment of the population or we're dealing with maybe depression or dark mood or feeling that we don't have purpose or feeling that we don't have permission to embark on the next chapter because somebody somewhere said, we shouldn't be doing that. We should just be.
Posting to retirement speaking about retirement by the way. I came across a BBC article just yesterday That spoke about the fact that very few people will have the resources to retire in their 60s very few In the United States is estimated that it will take about 1 .3 million dollars and that's outside of your Social Security benefits to comfortably retire Now I want to say this
Doctor Eno (14:19.662)
For those of us who have kids and younger ones and nephews and people that we mentor, younger folk that we mentor, I encourage you to have the conversation with them about starting to save in their 20s. Because even if they put aside a little bit of money every month, they will be able to reach that goal of being, of having a million dollars plus in retirement in their 60s. But back to us, very few of us,
will be able to retire in our sixties comfortably. A number of us will have to keep on working. Now, when it comes to work, I have had that conversation with people saying, you know what, I just don't feel that what I'm doing, especially in the next chapter, which is my direct primary care functional medicine practice, I don't look at that as work. I look at that as purpose, as a vision, as bringing together a community of people and teaching them how.
we can collectively thrive into our golden years. And so I say that to say that there may be many iterations of us moving forward and that even if the prior generation was okay with working for 30 years and retiring with a golden watch, that's not going to be our generation, right? That's not going to be us. When I speak about us, I speak about the Gen X's moving over 50 into their 60s.
and retire and subsequently. So don't use anybody else's standards. That's what I'd like to say. So key takeaways from this episode for me is my identity being okay with the now. Being able to come to terms with my identity outside of that of being a physician, really taking some deep introspection.
also redefining or defining the next chapter and still moving forward. And also just really embracing this moment, being in this moment and embracing this moment. So until next time, which will be shortly, again, I'm going to bring up a rhythm. I had said that, you know, I don't want to be chained down to...
Doctor Eno (16:44.046)
you know, is this podcast going to be every week? Is it going to be every two weeks? Because I wasn't too sure how I was going to go through the chemo, right? So now that I'm done with chemo, but I do still have surgery and I can sit down in my little home office and record this. I'm excited. They won't be really long episodes, but they, I do intend to bring them on more frequently. And again, if you have anybody, anybody at all, who you would like to highlight in the show.
Please go ahead and do so. Until next time, this is Dr. Eno, signing off, and Thrive On!
