More Than a Clinic
For twenty years, Penny has placed her trust in Harrison’s clinical team. Their commitment to proactive care, responsive communication, and consistent follow-up has supported her and her husband through every stage of life. Harrison’s coordinated approach has been a steady source of wellness, ensuring she always feels informed and cared for.
The connection Penny formed with her clinical team began with her daughter, who is now Harrison’s Medical Director at the Vancouver (Burrard) location. “Our daughter may be the reason we joined,” Penny says, “but it’s the team and the care that have kept us here.”
Penny’s relationship with Harrison is defined by both excellent medical care and her ongoing engagement with its educational resources. As a retired teacher, Penny’s lifelong passion for learning has found a new purpose. She enthusiastically engages with Harrison’s webinars, newsletters, and in-person sessions, and her excitement is contagious.
“The nutrition sessions have been a big hit with my book club,” she shares. “We especially loved the recent one on supplements. It’s such an overwhelming topic, and the session made it so much clearer.”
Her natural curiosity and love of learning keep her engaged in every discussion, whether it’s about advanced therapies, longevity health strategies, or the latest travel health guidelines. She often marvels at the team’s expertise.
“How do they keep up with all these new medications when things change so quickly?” she asks, impressed by their dedication to staying ahead of medical breakthroughs. This commitment to education leaves her feeling empowered, confident, and deeply connected to a community that champions wellness. This sense of security proved invaluable during a recent trip abroad.
They Did Everything Right
When Penny and her husband planned a trip to Panama and Mexico, their Harrison care team took a proactive, coordinated approach. They ensured all vaccinations were up-to-date and provided travel-specific guidance, reassuring them about any potential health concerns.
This comprehensive management reflects what Penny has always valued at Harrison: a team that connects her with dietitians, exercise physiologists, and specialist physicians, all working together. “I have so much available to me, from head to toe,” she explains. “I don’t feel rushed during my appointments, and I’m never made to feel like I’m asking a silly question.”
Despite her thorough preparation, she fell ill during her trip.
Even miles from home, she wasn’t alone. The Harrison team was just a call away: responsive, reassuring, and ready to help. Following their established protocol for travelling clients, she contacted a Harrison physician who, after hearing her symptoms, advised her to go to the hospital immediately.
While she received care for dehydration in Mexico, the illness lingered. She boarded her flight home feeling unwell, uncertain, and depleted, longing for the familiarity and comfort of her own bed. As soon as she landed, she was sent for immediate lab work to determine the next steps.
A Critical Moment
On Monday morning, as soon as he received her lab results, her physician, Dr. Hoo, called her directly. The news was unambiguous: her kidney function was in danger, and she needed to go to the emergency room immediately. Because the Harrison team had called ahead, the hospital staff were expecting her.
She spent several hours in the ER receiving treatment for severe dehydration. Throughout the process, her Harrison care team remained engaged and in close contact, coordinating with hospital staff and tracking her progress. The willingness to pick up the phone, to act, and to remain involved, that is the Harrison standard.
The preparation before the trip had not prevented the illness, but it had meant that when the illness became serious, there was a team already in motion. One who knew her, acted without hesitation and made sure she didn’t have to navigate it alone.
Six Weeks of Showing Up
Since her return home, Penny now visits Harrison at least once a week, for on-site labs, direct appointments with her physician and nurse, or ongoing check-ins to support her recovery. What stands out most is how her care team actively manages every detail, monitoring her test results, checking in on how she’s feeling, and adapting her care to each stage of her healing. The clinic guides her on nutrition, rest, and pacing her return to activity, ensuring she never feels alone or overwhelmed.
“I started this whole ordeal feeling scared,” she reflects. “But every time I walked out of the clinic, I felt the anxiety slip away. They had taken it on for me.”
On a recent visit, before she had even reached her clinician, a member of the front desk team stopped her. “You’re looking so much better,” she said, and gave her a hug.
“That meant the world to me,” Penny says. “After feeling quite down for six weeks, to be seen like that was just what I needed.”
Care at Harrison does not begin in the exam room. It lives in every person from the moment you walk through the door.
While she still has some healing ahead of her, she knows she’s in good hands. Her next steps include seeing her exercise physiologist, Avyn, to rebuild her strength, and checking in with her dietitian, Gelina, to restore her health from the inside out.
When asked, after twenty years and everything this past year has held, how she would describe her relationship with Harrison, Penny didn’t reach for a word about medicine or treatment or outcomes.
She said: “Friendship.”
It started because of her daughter. It has lasted because of every person who has shown up, picked up the phone, run the labs, given the hug, and made her feel, in the moments that mattered most, that she was never in it alone.
“The theme song of this clinic,” she says, “should be ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me.’ It’s about being there for someone no matter what. That’s what this clinic has been for me.”
