I believe that this photograph was taken by one of Dad’s veterinary colleagues at an AHVMA retreat. The retreats are held each year near the site of the AHVMA conference, just prior to, or just after, the conference. The first one that Donn attended was held in Indiana. Donn attended at least half a dozen of these retreats. He quit attending when one of the retreats had primitive accommodations, which would have been difficult for sleeping and may have lacked the ability to plug in his C-PAP machine.
These retreats were wonderful opportunities for like-minded veterinarians to gather for friendship and the sharing of information that might help each other in their own wellness journeys. These veterinarians seemed exceptionally open and generous with their time to focus on each other’s concerns.
The annual AHMVA conference was to be held in Ogden, Utah, so we hosted the retreat at Kirkwood that year. “Healer, hel thyself” was the title of the retreat. We had 35 people in attendance, including veterinarians and some family members. We provided breakfast and dinner each day of the three-day retreat. We housed people in three of our bedrooms. Other housing included at least one tipi, a tent, and other lodging in the area. One of the veterinarians admitted some disappointment in “Kirkwood Resort and Marina,” when they found they were not staying in the lap of luxury at the Kirkwood cabins at the bottom of the hill. Donn and I enjoyed shopping in Bozeman for spiral notebooks, pens, name tags, and a multitude of other supplies, including a massage table. We also bought all the groceries we needed, for the meals.
We provided airfare for Janet Shumaker, license massage therapist, to join the retreat offering massage to participants who paid for the services. She was given the room across from the downstairs bathroom, as that space was sufficient for the massage table. Janet also led yoga classes on our deck. We arranged for Terry Fox, Ph.D., owner of Buck Mountain Botanicals of Miles City, Montana, to conduct an “herb walk,” to teach the veterinarians about local herbs. Howard Rand, DVM, from Sarasota, Florida, took photos, had them printed, and gave them to participants at the conference in Ogden. Bryan and I had our eyes opened to some of the modalities being discussed and the cultural offerings, like the musical brass bowl played by one of the veterinarians.
A few of the participants–Deborah Mitchell, D.V.M., and Mona Boudreau, D.V.M., among them, were exceptionally helpful kitchen crew in getting the meals prepared and served. Some of the favorite offerings were hottenanny pancakes, eggs mexicana, salad maison, gazpacho, and flank steak teriyaki.
I believe the first retreat Donn attended was at the Indiana farm of Mark Haverkos, D.V.M. Mark facilitated the construction of a “sweat lodge” at the retreats. Donn usually participated in those. Mark heated rocks in a fire, then moved the rocks into the tipi, where the interior temperature got very high, causing the participants to sweat. There were discussions and various intellectual or spiritual activities during the time in the sweat lodge. After about an hour, the participants exited and had a meal together.
The sweat lodge that took place at Kirkwood, located near the Kirkwood Store, went according to plan, except that Donn found that he had to wait in the cold for about an hour before the room where the meal was being served was ready and open to the participants. That room was one of the Kirkwood Cabins at the bottom of the hill. When he developed a neurological problem shortly after the retreat, he always wondered if the sweat lodge experience, being exposed to the cold for about an hour after his profuse sweating, may have brought on the neurological disorder. It was a troubling period, with nighttime and morning pain that kept him from sleeping. It subsided each afternoon, but came back each night. He had noticeable atrophy of his left arm and hand (and perhaps the muscles in his chest). He also developed muscle fasciculations that continued for the rest of his life.
Donn had heard about a theory that he thought might have been at play in his neurological problem. The theory made reference to toxins getting “caught in the matrix.” He thought that when he was sweating and then was immediately thrust into the cold for an hour, the toxins released while sweating may have been caught in the “matrix.” His questions to physicians about this theory went unanswered. They were unaware of the theory.
At the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, the January after the onset of the neurological disorder (2006 or 2007), about four or five of his veterinary colleagues met around a breakfast or lunch table to consult with Donn regarding his symptoms. I was touched by the concern they showed for Donn. Also, during that trip to Orlando and Siesta Key, Ralph Kuhnert, one of Donn’s Sigma Chi pledge brothers, arranged for a phone call between Donn and Ralph’s older brother, Paul, a physician who had experienced a similar condition. Paul told Donn that his problem had subsided after about two years. Donn’s subsided after six months to a year. The one treatment that I recall Donn instituted was to exercise vigorously almost every day. He also took the advice of his veterinary colleagues to refrain from eating gluten, something that he continued for the rest of his life.
Donn asked R. Hinkle, whether the 2006 neurological disorder may have been related to the PSP that developed. Dr. Hinkle thought that the two conditions were not related. About ten years passed between the 2006 disorder and the noticeable onset of symptoms of PSP (first diagnosed in March 2019).
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