Today, on this Saturday morning, I drove into the hospital to do one of my favourite parts of my job: Newborn rounds. As I was oohing and aahing at this beautiful new baby's full head of hair, mom smiled at me and asked, "Do you have kids?" "No, not yet," I replied with my usual canned response. "Oh." The dynamic in the room quickly changed.
When I started working in primary care, I expected my daily working life to consist of a lot of ear infections and talks about weight loss. What I didn't expect was to be hit by a daily onslaught of depression and anxiety, but after about 2 years in, it's pretty much become routine. However, last year I collided with anxiety in an entirely different form, rooted deeply in a controversial social issue: Black Lives Matter
You always remember your first. Your first video game console, first car, first boyfriend/girlfriend. I remember my first real patient as a med student, my first patient in my adult medicine clinic in residency. Today, I remember my first patient in private practice to die on me
Every January, I go through my spending over the previous year to see where my money went using Mint. It just hit me today - since refinancing my student loans in Dec 2015, I have paid off $100,000! It has felt like such a slow and painful process, but finally I'm at a tangible mark - $100,000 certainly feels like a HUGE accomplishment. ...
People like me are at high risk for burnout. Type A personality? ✓ Perfectionist?  ✓ Healthcare professional?  ✓ Too stubborn to admit you're struggling/ask for help?  ✓ I was pretty much doomed from day one. ...
I lied to a patient today. It wasn't something I thought I'd ever do on purpose, but today I made the conscious decision to do so. And quite honestly, I have no regrets. What would compel me to do such a thing?  I always thought I'd be the doctor that would lay it all out there for patients - here's your diagnosis and here are the treatment options. Let's talk about what best fits in your life and what you're willing to do according to your values, not mine. And today, I totally threw that out the window.
What is with the need to explain this generation of physicians to the rest of our colleagues and society? What is so terrifying about millennials in medicine? ...
Earlier this year, I met a doctor who by all of society’s standards was doing well for herself.  She was working as an anesthesiologist making insane amounts of money - she just bought her dream house in one of the most sought after sub-developments in town, was working toward paying off her student loans, and after being too busy to do any of the life things during residency (doctor training after med school) she just got married!  Life was finally going her way - after 10+ years of delayed gratification, she felt she was finally getting her piece of the American dream. Fast forward 10 months, right before Thanksgiving I saw her again, except I almost didn’t recognize her this time around.  Gone was the aura of excitement and happiness she had when I first met her. ...