Interim HealthCare Davis/Weber County

Interim HealthCare Davis/Weber County Interim HealthCare is improving people's lives with personalized care through clinical excellence.

07/27/2025

You have brain cancer? Good. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. The biggest goal through treatment was to keep spirits up. Youtube and Tik Tok helped me a lot. I read poetry, quotes and listened to inspirational videos. 2 that really inspired me and Natalie were a short video by Jocko Willink a former Navy Seal where the premise is in every situation, no matter how bad, there is some good and if you can assess the situation and say good, you shift your mind from being a victim into being grateful for the challenge as it is an opportunity to get stronger. The quote that inspired us was ‘even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree’ by Martin Luther. To me this means I might die tomorrow but can still make the world better today. It’s a selfless view of how to live. I got my first tattoo at the age of 51–I now have Good on my left forearm. Our house has had an 8’ tall plain cinderblock wall in the back yard for years. We just had a beautiful landscape mural with apple tree and this quote painted on the wall so it’s one the first things we see every day. Cool story about the mural. When I was getting chemo I was very anxious, car rides helped. So one day we decided to drive an hour north to visit my parents. Almost to their house there is a fire station that had a full sized horse painted beautifully in front. I was too anxious to visit my parents, but we learned that the city donates 50 of these horses to the art community each year, they decorate them then have a big display. Well, due to covid they decided to spread them out. We spent a full day driving, hunting for these horses. Our favorite horse was painted like a World War 2 P-51 Mustang. A year later we decided to paint our apple tree mural on our wall. I asked on Facebook if anybody knew a mural artist. My cousin recommended Jasey Colunga. Natalie won’t trust our mural to any body so she looked him up–one of the first pieces of his we saw was our favorite horse. Serendipity. He did an amazing job and without asking he painted 2 apples as little hearts. It’s beautiful to look at every day! I realize how close I came to dying so every experience I have is one I almost did not have. I try to not label things as good or bad, but just appreciate them in the moment. I get cold in the winter, now I think I am grateful to feel cold because I almost couldn’t.

07/26/2025

Would you rather have MS or cancer? My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. When I was first getting sick they told me it was likely Multiple Sclerosis. I told Natalie and Mike Bridges my feelings are that MS slowly (or quickly) eats away at you and you get weaker and weaker. I said I wished I had cancer because cancer is something you can fight and either you win or cancer wins. That’s a game I prefer to play, so I got cancer, fought it, won, and it left me disabled like MS–go figure. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

07/25/2025

Supplements. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. Before I got sick, I experimented with supplements but the focus was on performance improvement or to get leaner. I now take 18 supplements per day, 11 in the morning and 7 at night. Some of them are: Elysium Basis–an NAD supplement to enhance longevity. Vitamin D, krill oil, Vitamin K2, Vitamin B, magnesium, zinc, copper, calcium, Selenium, Citruline Malate, lion’s mane, Kachava protein, 5HTP. Like any supplement–do they work? Who knows. Do I think I am healthier taking them than not? Yep. I have considered taking testosterone again but am not willing to risk the possibility of cancer again. Doctors say it is unrelated, but I am still not willing to go there.

07/24/2025

Fitness and health. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. I have always been fit and enjoyed doing things that make me uncomfortable, partly to test myself and partly to see what happens. I pride myself on my health. I exercised in the gym, mostly lifting weights 4-5 times per week. I also played competitive baseball, I snow boarded, fly fished, and hiked a lot. I also enjoyed experimenting with various supplements and diets. I always maintained a body composition of 6% body fat. I really liked how I felt on a keto diet or after a 48 hour fast but found intermittent fasting to be a sustainable plan that fit my lifestyle. When I was 47 years old I was looking for an edge and a way to maintain my fitness and improve my energy so I started taking testosterone. I have a needle aversion so injecting myself the first couple times was hard, but I got used to it and was able to do it weekly. Results were apparent quickly–I grew muscle and lifts at the gym got easier, either able to do more weight and/or do more reps. I liked it a lot. As I got older, I always tried to be in what I called pre season shape, meaning I was fit enough to do anything but also not in shape for everything. For example, just because I could run for miles, I would also get very winded early in snowboarding season because I was not in snowboarding shape. Brain cancer was hard, but my fitness made it easier, I was much more resilient to the harsh drugs. I am disabled and I fall often, but because of my former athleticism, I am falling without getting hurt. I got brain cancer at 49 so I stopped the testosterone even though doctors said it does not correlate. Cancer left me pretty disabled so going to the gym was hard and frustrating. I can’t walk 30 seconds on a treadmill without holding on and all gripping or pushing exercises are not possible. Being idol was hard on me mentally. I never gained or lost much weight, always around 180 pounds, but a much softer 180 pounds. I saw an advertisement for Katalyst, an Electro Magnetic Stimulation suit that stimulates the muscles as if under load, but without the pressure on joints from weights. Doing Katalyst for the first time felt like lifting weights and I was whole body sore. Each workout is 20 minutes and the movements simulate the real movements, like squats, bench press, curls. I also bought a Concept 2 rowing machine as it is the only cardio I can do. I row 3-4 days per week and do Katalyst twice and exercise my abs every day. I have gotten leaner and gained 9 pounds in 4 months, amazing!!

07/23/2025

Stress and Worry. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. I don’t stress or worry about most things for 3 main reasons: First most of the things people worry about never happen. Second–when things do happen it rarely happens the way you thought it would. Finally, I have lived enough life and dealt with enough things that I feel no matter what happens, I can handle it. The one thing I always worry about is if something goes wrong, it better not be because I messed up. My favorite scene of all movies is in the movie The Right Stuff. In it Alan Shepard is about to be the first American launched into space and the likelihood of a catastrophic failure and death was high. He said a short prayer: “Dear Lord, please don’t let me f**k up.” He didn’t care if he blew up and died, just don’t let it be his fault. This is such beautiful ownership.

07/22/2025

Kentucky Derby, BirthDay and a Beautiful Mustache! My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. 6 months after my bone marrow transplant, I was still very physically disabled–I was using a wheelchair full time. My 50th birthday happened to be on the same day as the Kentucky Derby so we decided to have a party. Our Derby parties have become a thing we get excited for every year. We dress up, Natalie wore a very cute white and pink dress and big pink hat. I wore a pink suit, pink bow tie and pink derby hat–we were adorable. My buddy Mike Bridges made pimento sandwiches, we had chicken nuggets, deserts and of course mint juleps. Mint Juleps are 100% gross so we had a lemonade version that was much more drinkable. I had a mustache going through chemo, I refused to shave thinking the chemo would kill it. I wanted a mustache for the derby but seeing it gave Natalie some cancer PTSD. So I grew a beard. Before the derby we went to a barber. I told him Michelangelo aid every piece of stone has a statue inside and it’s the artist’s task to discover it. I told my barber the beard has a beautiful mustache inside and his task is to discover it. I said I wanted to look like a Civil War colonel. He did a beautiful job and my mustache was glorious.

07/21/2025

Should I buy a Land Rover Defender? My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. I have always loved the look of rugged off road vehicles since I was in college. The first one I bought was a 1977 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 I bought when I was accepted to Pilot Training in the Air Force as a reward to myself. It looked crappy–spray painted Army green, but it had a Corvette engine and driving around Las Vegas with the doors and top off is one of the coolest experiences of my life. My next one was a 1977 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40 that was beautiful orange, lifted with big tires, a Trans Am engine and automatic conversion, got it as a 40th birthday present to myself, a 40 for 40. I sold it before I got sick. Ever since I saw the Land Rover Defender I loved and wanted one. So laying in the hospital bed bored I decided to look one up. That led to a conversation and agreement with Von Dur Land Rovers in the Netherlands to import one from Spain, restore it and ship it to me. Natalie came into the hospital room where I told her I think I just bought a Defender and we had to wire some money. This was right after my first brain surgery. She thought I just got scammed but I was likely to die anyway so better to die happy and hopeful. Musa the owner of Von Dur sent me periodic updates and 2 years later the Defender arrived at my house. I changed the color several times from white to silver to gold/silver to green to blue to red. It’s red with brown leatherette and red stitching interior. It is a beautiful vehicle. When I registered it we told the guy at the DMV the story and he said the Defender was being restored while I was being restored--cool. Only issue is it is a manual transmission so with my right side disability driving it is possible but not as fun as I’d like it to be. I will convert it to automatic so it is easier and more fun to drive—it’s a big job but there is a very comprehensive kit. Our goal is to load the grandkids into the troop carrier like rear jump seats and go get ice cream.

07/20/2025

Cleared!! My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. Although I was cancer free, it definitely left it’s mark. Similar to a stroke, the cancer left me disabled. My right arm and leg are uncoordinated and weak, my speech is impaired and my balance is bad. Before cancer I prided myself on my physical ability. Adjusting to being disabled is redefining who I am. While I did not die from cancer, the person I thought I was did die. I started out patient physical therapy at Neuroworx, a great facility that specializes in neurological injuries, mostly spinal cord with a great physical therapist Emma Buckley. It was inspiring seeing the hard work others were doing and I hope my effort and attitude inspired them too. There was a study on stroke victims that elevating the heart rate to 85% of max for 30 minutes improved the brains ability to learn. So that’s what we did 3x per week–intense work on a Versa Climber, rowing machine, treadmill, or in the exercise pool that had jets and a treadmill. Midway through each workout they would ask me to rate the difficulty on a scale of 0-20 (easy to extremely difficult). 14 was the first number labeled hard. Never once did I say I was ever higher than 13. It became the goal of each therapist I worked with to get me to say it was hard, but I would never give them the satisfaction, even if I felt I might die which I did feel like a few times. I was scheduled for follow up MRIs and visits with my oncologist every 3 months.The week before the first one was an anxious time–the worry and fear of cancer returning is real and scary. They say if you have not had a recurrence in 2 years, odds ae in your favor and each year after that gets better. My physical therapy lasted for a year, then I took it upon myself to stay healthy. Going to the gym is hard with my disability so I now have a rowing machine, sauna and electrical stimulating exercise suit called Katalyst I do at home. I stopped taking all medications after about a year–I was on some nasty stuff, steroids, anti psychotic meds, etc. I now take about 17 supplements and exercise 5-6 days per week

07/19/2025

Nachos and Ice Cream. My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. My appetite went way down through my 8 rounds of chemo. I craved hot and spicy food, the hotter the better. A local salsa called Dorado and jalapeno chips were my sitting on the couch snack. But what kept me alive was Costa Vida Nachos and Arctic Circle Reese's peanut butter cup shakes. Natalie and I ate both nachos then ice cream every day for probably 3 months. Then my craving turned to cheese pizza–we ate that every day for probably a month. The rest of the time, I was drinking clear boost. 6 months after my bone marrow transplant we were driving past Costa Vida and decided to stop for nachos. The one guy working had unusually high enthusiasm so we called him over while we ate to tell him how Costa Vida kept me alive. Turns out he was a regional manager named Mike Hopkins–I told him I have been called Mike Hopkins hundreds of times, he said he’s been called Mike Hawkins hundreds of times. He did make a good nacho plate.

07/18/2025

McRibs are gross, but funny (unless you are expecting pancakes). My name is Mike Hawkins, I am a retired, disabled veteran and own Interim HealthCare Utah. I was diagnosed with brain cancer at 49 years old and am writing short stories about my experiences through that challenge. I hope you find this beneficial. The hospital food in Huntsman Cancer Institute was good but with a weak appetite and an impulsive/ anxious brain it sometimes did not hit the mark. For some reason I craved spicy food through the treatment and hospital food is a bit bland. So when I would get a craving, we would jump on it quickly. I used Door Dash a lot, sometimes for me and Natalie, sometimes I would order Donuts for the staff. Due to the floor I was on and the pandemic, the delivery drivers had to leave food at the entrance and I would send staff down to get it for me. One day I had a massive craving for McDonalds breakfast so I ordered it and as so excited waiting for it. I see in the app that it has arrived, I send the nurse to get it, she returns with a McDonalds bag filled with 4 McRib sandwiches–I was devastated wondering how they could be this wrong. Unbeknownst to me, my best buddy Mike Bridges who did a Masters Degree study on the McRib, and was obsessed with the business side of the McRib had coincidentally delivered 4 of them at the exact same time I ordered my breakfast as a joke. The McRib and my breakfast bags were both at the entrance and the nurse grabbed the wrong one. When you rarely have an appetite and only want pancakes, a McRib Sandwich might be the grossest thing you could imagine. I eventually got my breakfast and the staff got the McRibs and we all got a good laugh.

07/18/2025

What is your no-show guarantee? We are very proud of our no-show guarantee. If we cannot cover one of our employee no-shows for a shift within 2 hours, we will deliver a check for $250 to the facility. We are very careful about who we hire and the no-show rate is currently 2.7% which is very low for the industry.

07/18/2025

Mr. Jensen, 85, with Parkinson’s, struggled to manage his daily routine. Our caregiver helped with cooking, cleaning, and companionship, allowing him to stay in his beloved home.

Interim HealthCare joins local Walks to End Alzheimer’s all around the country. Together, we can make a significant cont...
07/07/2025

Interim HealthCare joins local Walks to End Alzheimer’s all around the country. Together, we can make a significant contribution to making a difference and moving closer to a world without Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Join a team today: alz.org/interimhealthcarewalk

Thank you to the families and care teams who bring heart to every home. Happy Independence Day.❤️🤍💙
07/04/2025

Thank you to the families and care teams who bring heart to every home. Happy Independence Day.
❤️🤍💙

From heart health to mental health, caring for men means encouraging conversations and regular checkups.
06/27/2025

From heart health to mental health, caring for men means encouraging conversations and regular checkups.

Behind every survivor is a story of strength, struggle, and hope. We celebrate you this .
06/23/2025

Behind every survivor is a story of strength, struggle, and hope. We celebrate you this .

Some wounds are invisible. This PTSD Awareness Day, we stand with those still healing. You are not alone. ❤️
06/19/2025

Some wounds are invisible. This PTSD Awareness Day, we stand with those still healing. You are not alone. ❤️

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