Blog

Roxane Olsen-Markee is a healthy and active person. She lives a fit life and is a physical therapist by profession. But she always had a bit of an odd physical feature, which ultimately led her to seek outpatient surgery at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center (LVMC)surgical department.

Since childhood, Armando Rojas has always been a “big guy.” Three years ago, he weighed 407 pounds – the most he’d ever weighed. Even though he is 6-feet, 3-inches tall, that amount of weight put him at a BMI, or Body Mass Index, of 46. He was categorized as obese.

When Danielle Cooper found herself unable to lose the weight she gained after back-to-back pregnancies, she tried diets, exercise, and limiting her food intake.

As a mail carrier, Meghan Paine is used to a lot of physical activity, and needing plenty of energy and good health to get her job completed every day. The long work hours and physical duties are rough, she says.

In his just more than 70 years of life, John Foust has been an active fellow. He played football in high school and was on an adult softball team for about 16 years. He’s fallen off horses without serious injury and has generally been physically fit. 

For several years, Lompoc resident “G” suffered from a nagging sensation inside his nose. It caused him problems with breathing and sleeping and he could never get relief. Finally, he was referred to Sheppard Peng, DO, MPH, a Lompoc Health otolaryngologist who treats patients with disorders of the ears, nose, and throat (ENT). 

When Darth Vadar walked through the doors at Lompoc Health - Hematology-Oncology, the staff knew it wasn’t going to be a typical appointment for the man behind the mask.

National Cancer Survivors Day is commemorated today as a celebration for those who have survived through a cancer diagnosis and as a way to outreach to the community about key cancer issues. 

Vilinda Shaner Read wanted to do something to cheer up her brother Bill, who is being cared for at the Comprehensive Care Center and unable to have visitors due to the COVID-19 virus and visitor restrictions.

At the age of six, the path of Jim Morgenstern’s life changed forever. It was at that tender age in 1949 that the Fresno boy was diagnosed with polio. 

Mary Silva Cabral has always been a caretaker. A lifelong hard worker, she was born 101 years ago in an old adobe home on Mail Road. 

For many of her 59 years, Lompoc resident Grace Handlen has had her health care managed by one medical organization. Born at Cottage Hospital, her family physician, throughout the years, practiced with Santa Barbara Medical Foundation, which eventually became Sansum Clinic.

The couple were so impressed with their entire experience – from pre-natal care to postpartum breastfeeding assistance — that they now joke with one another that they want to have more children just so they can deliver at LVMC. “There were people here to help us the whole way through,” Stacie says. “We didn’t feel like we were having to figure out everything on our own.”

The small lump on my right elbow turned out to be a liposarcoma of the right triceps, and it needed to be gone.

Apprehension, dread, nervousness, fear, caution, uncomfortable, and worry. These are all too common feelings and emotions among patients entering into their local public hospital. With each entry, there is a long shadowed storyline unknown to the passerby or the receptionist at the desk, logging one of many patients for the day. For some, the entire experience can feel unnatural, clinical, and downright impersonal and, at times, even cold. Such a scenario did not greet me on a cool Wednesday morning at the Lompoc Hospital.