I want to apologize to the regular readers of my blog for the lack of any posts for the past six weeks. My wife Irene and I have experienced a minor interruption in our hectic lives and her name is Rafaella Avge Tsirozidou. She was born on February 28^th, 2014. She weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces and was 19.5 inches long and I must say she is as cute as a button. I know, having kids is a rather routine matter and I’ve had a few over the years, but Irene has never been a mother and very few guys become new fathers at my age. Neither of us are “spring chickens” and no, I’m not going to give out any exact ages. Lets just say that Medicare will be shocked when I submit the labor and delivery bill!

Trust Me—She Looked Better Than Demi Moore
Irene did extremely well during the pregnancy until the very end when she developed preeclampsia and perinatal cardiomyopathy, a rare form of pregnancy related heart failure. Thankfully we were at Massachusetts General Hospital and everything worked out just fine. I counted 18 physicians in the operating room when she had her C-section (not including the two of us). I can hardly wait to see the bill! Since then we have been adjusting to our new life of diapers and nighttime feedings.

I tell my jealous friends that Rafaella is my latest anti-aging strategy. If you spend much time around people as they pass into their “senior” years, you will notice that their circle of friends often narrows as their friends die off or become ill. They often lose interest in taking on new activities and become more self-centered as they develop their own health problems and focus on their symptoms. If they eat a poor diet their brain function tanks and they can develop CARB syndrome. There’s one thing I do know—if you are a parent of a young child, you can’t do any of these things. “Crotchety old fart” and parenting clearly do not mix.

Who’s the Old Guy?
Sure people will think you are grandpa when you show up at PTA meetings, student evaluations or sporting events but you will be too frazzled to worry about it. Your kids will also constantly remind you when you drift too far into old fogginess with your way of dressing, behavior or mannerisms. This might have some merit if you are parenting in your 20s or 30s, but it can truly be a game changer in your dowdy senior years. Our government has suggested that some of us baby boomers will need to retire at a later age to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent. Trust me, if you have an infant at my age retirement isn’t even on the radar screen.

Seriously, we are extremely proud and joyous to have Rafaella as our infant daughter. I am an optimist and work very hard as a physician to help people live healthier and fuller lives, hopefully to make the world a better place for all of us. Now I have one more important reason to keep doing so.