“Women go to see the doctor and men die. … that’s our history.”
Experience – as a family practice physician and an Ojibwe man – brought Dr. Arne Vainio to this conclusion.
Growing up, Vainio, of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, witnessed the devastation of diabetes, heart problems, alcoholism, suicide and of a hesitation, especially by Native American men, to seek the medical testing, advice and care that could prevent disabilities and death.
So, as Vainio approached that pivotal age of 50 – the age when testing is urged for colon and prostate cancers and more regular diabetes and blood pressure screenings – he found himself as anxious about those tests as his patients.
“It all started with me approaching 50, wanting to go through the screenings I was avoiding,” Vainio said, and he wondered if his path could teach others about good health choices.
He decided to chronicle his journey in a newspaper column, but his friend Lorraine Norrgard, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who lives near the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the reservation where Vainio works, had a different idea.
“She said, ‘This needs to be in film.’”
Two years and many medical screenings and health care sessions later, Vainio’s experiences have become a new tool to encourage medical testing and follow-up work for healthier, longer and more physically full lives.
“Walking into the Unknown” follows Vainio through his testing and travels with him into changes of lifestyle and thinking. The film’s trailer can be viewed at www.walkingintotheunknown.com.
The documentary, which premiered March 23 at the University of Minnesota Duluth, was filmed and directed by Nate Maydole and produced by Vainio’s wife, Ivy Vainio. The project was funded by the Fond du Lac Band and with support from the IHS Special Diabetes Program. Copies of the 60-minute documentary will be given to more than 330 IHS diabetes prevention programs.
Depictions of Vainio’s experiences are blunt, intended to help others face their fears or hesitations. His colonoscopy, for example, was filmed as it happened using two cameras and one “scope” camera to capture the full procedure and should take the mystery – and fear – out of it.
“It was pretty scary, all the stuff that was in the film. Nothing was scripted. … This way, it’s the way it would really happen. Walking into the unknown. … and I really did.”
Maydole who also worked full-time as a creative director for 50 Entertainment in Minneapolis, agreed the documentary was a challenge. “We really didn’t know the path of the story until we got into it.”
Vainio was the right person for the film, Maydole said. “Arne was a very easy subject to shoot; he was very open to tell the story. … to show it all. People just respect him for who he is. He’s very intelligent. It’s not just medically in his life, it’s personally.”
Part of the film shows a diabetes prevention program. Maydole believes that information can help people facing diabetes. “They can view it. A doctor can prescribe this movie. Hopefully it’s a teaching tool – that’s the way I look at it.”
Having Ivy as producer was an asset, Maydole said. “She was kind of the glue to the piece.”
She and their son, Jacob, were also the catalyst for Vainio to undertake these tests. “I didn’t want Jacob and Ivy to push me around in a wheelchair because of something that I could have avoided,” he said.
Results for his tests were given to Vainio on camera and the procedures were done as anyone would have them, without special favors to a physician. “I’m exactly the same as my patients are.”
Vainio is indeed as his patients are. His childhood was typical; he grew up in a home with no indoor plumbing with his six siblings and ate lots of fried foods. “That’s the food that I grew up with, it’s hard to break away from that.”
He was not originally drawn to medicine and was told by a high school counselor that he was not college material. Plus, he had other career plans. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a truck driver. They had those big chains with a wallet on ’em.”
After leaving school, he worked in a sawmill, painted cars and operated heavy equipment for years. “None of those made any difference” for his community, he said. Then an emergency ended tragically in his town when a local person died and no one could give CPR to help. So, Vainio became a firefighter and paramedic. He began requesting the rotation that put him in the back of the ambulance, where he felt he could help the most.
“I loved medicine.”
Soon, he and another paramedic decided to become doctors, first attending the University of Minnesota Duluth and then graduating from the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. He then did a residency in Seattle before returning to Minnesota. (The documentary will be shown in Seattle April 29.)
Vainio’s is not the only story told in “Walking into the Unknown.” A spiritual advisor opens the film and throughout others tell their stories, often family tragedies that could have been prevented by seeking proper health care in time.
“Those are powerful stories,” Vainio said. He hopes this film will open doors to healthier, longer lives in Indian country. Losing community members unnecessarily, especially elders, affects everyone. “We lose so much; we lose traditions.
“It sounds trite,” Vainio added, “but even if the film could help just one person. … it’s something that defines you as a person; you know deep in your heart that you made a difference for somebody. That’s humbling.”
