Is there a doctor in the house?

Source: Google Images

When I leave work at the end of the day, my work is done.  No one calls me up or sends me text messages asking about VDL's, what lots of land are trading at, or if the bills got processed that month.  When I leave work that world is behind me.  Dr. Love isn't quite as lucky.

The good thing about Family Medicine is there are always people who need your skills.  The bad thing about Family Medicine is there are always people who need your skills.

There never will be a shortage of colds, flu, weird body aches, gastrointestinal troubles, and questions about ears/eyes/noses/throats/feet/etc.  Most likely your friends and family will be afflicted with the maladies and who will they come to for help?  Their friendly personal doctor. 

The calls for help or answers will unavoidably come at the end of a 30 hour call shift, in the middle of the first day off in weeks, in the morning of the one day you get to sleep in, or after a really bad day in clinic.  Inevitably they will call when your stretched to the breaking point and the last thing you want to do is have one more medical problem to solve.  They're your loved ones though, your friends and family, and you can't tell Sister Sue that you are not able to listen to her questions about Niece Janie's earache because you're too tired.  In reality though all you want to do is have a day where you can put medicine on the back burner and not think about it.  So what's a doc to do?

Do you set ground rules about when and how often you'll take questions and consults for friends/family/acquaintances outside of regularly scheduled business hours?

Do you bite the bullet and be at their beckon call accepting that it's just part of this crazy ride called medicine?

Does the fact that your friends and family have suffered through the trials and tribulation of med school along with you (though not to the same extent) entitle them to take part in the benefit of the end result?

How do you keep a balance between work and life?

I'm not sure there's a clear cut solution to this but I know the conundrum has weighed on Dr. Love lately. He wants to help but needs, heck we both need, time where he can step away from medicine for a bit and just be him without someone needing his attention.  I know the family doesn't do it with the malicious intent to take advantage of him but rather they usually have something they're concerned/curious about and naturally the first person you're going to think of is your buddy/brother that you have on speed dial. 

I think I should start working on an "off duty" light for him to signal when he is no longer taking medical questions for the day.  Is there an app for that? 

Wanna get away?

During residency time at home is precious, days off are a luxury, and vacation days that lead to a 4 day weekend are rare prize that must not be wasted. A week ago, Dr Love had a couple of vacation days come up that resulted in a fabulous 4 day golden weekend. Given the rough news we'd received earlier that week in regards to this cycle, combined with the breakdown I had during Match Week, we decided we could not let this opportunity for a break go wasted. We scoured the Internet and found a small pet-friendly cottage in the Verde Valley that was available, packed up the car and headed for the hills.

The cottage was perfect and just what we needed. Quiet, secluded and relaxing. During our time there, the only other living creatures I consistently saw were the 3 goats in the neighbors yard. We were plucked from our stressful, chaotic life in the city and plopped down on the Agrarian Avenue that time forgot complete with windmills and chicken coops.

Even Buster was in doggy heaven with all the room to run and new scents to sniff, which would have been all well and good, except he developed a case of the-grass-is-greener-over-there-itis.

Seriously this dog had maybe an acre of fenced in land to check out which is a bajillion times larger than our little patio at home, but that wasn't enough. After exploring the area he wanted to be in the neighbor's yard on either side of us. He patrolled the fence looking for spots big enough for his little body to slip through, and find them he did. That was the not-so-relaxing part of the weekend, as I raced down the lane to retrieve my furry little explorer before he got too far, got himself in trouble, or ruined something of the neighbors. He's proven that his little beagle genes run strong in him and if we ever take him camping he can't be let off-leash because he would be half way across the forest before we could catch him.

I'm so glad that we took the opportunity to get away from everything and just have time for the two of us. We desperately needed a break from residency and infertility and to have a chance to get back to our relationship as friends and spouses outside of the external stresses. I didn't want the weekend to end. I didn't want to head back to reality. I would be content to stay on that little lane for weeks. Alas the obligations both of us have to our jobs brought us back, but we came back a little relaxed, a lot more happy, and very much still in love. Here's hoping we don't need another one of these breaks for awhile, and that the next one will be under more pleasant circumstances.

In the beginning

Once upon a time there was a girl. Growing up, her parents taught her well and she knew that she could succeed at almost anything she put her mind to. She excelled in school, graduated high school with highest honors and received a full ride scholarship to a local university. She graduated college cum laude, got a decent job, and bought a small townhouse. She was on the right track and happy with what she was accomplishing in life, yet something was missing. She was alone. She watched as one by one her friends took the plunge into marital bliss. Eager for it to be her turn, she stepped off of the sideline and dove into the dating pool. In the pool, she ran into a lot of frogs who just when she began to think "this has to be IT, he's definitely the one" they plowed her heart over with a semi.

Then one day, after years of a heartbreaking search, she found him! Her knight in a white lab coat, Dr. Love. He was her other half, and they fit each other perfectly like no other before had. He made her laugh, feel special, and looked at her as if she was the most beautiful person he'd met. It wasn't long before they were in love and planning to be wed. The girl knew that in the years to come he would have to leave her often during his residency program but she could deal with that knowing he would be forever hers and she his. Dr Love swept her off her feet and they rode off into the sunset to live happily ever after...


Except nothing is as easy as it seems.