AFTER MY LAST DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT, I got a call about my annual physical lab results. The call alone was enough to scare me. Each year, my checkup comes and goes uneventfully (thankfully). “We’ll call you if there’s anything unusual,” they say. A call never comes, and I get to say, “See ya next year!” But this time, just a few days after my appointment, a call came. My heart quivered a bit. I wondered what it could be as I anxiously dialed the office. The answer was vitamin D deficiency. Seemed like a lot of hullabaloo for a vitamin deficiency. But dutifully I picked up a prescription for a few doses high enough to get me back on track, and the doctor’s orders were to go outside.
I felt bad that I needed a doctor to remind me to spend more time outdoors. The past year has been a whirlwind of work that had subtly, but surely, kept me out of the bright, warm sun. I’d traded lunchtime walks for answering more emails, swapped my runs at the park for quicker classes at the gym; weekends were about sleeping in and catching up on household chores instead of activities out in the world.