well, well, well…

here we are. I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately – how we spend it, how it passes, that it marches on whether we want it to or not.

Some current times:
28 weeks pregnant
9 weeks left of residency
16 weeks until boards
14 weeks of maternity leave (what is THAT?!)
2 new daycares in our new city (the infant daycare we chose is inside the high school)
1 new primary care job
4 days a week at my new job (which day should I take off?)
4 more overnight ICU shifts
16 t-ball games left

and one amazing life! The dream lives on :)

Yes, we have finally decided on a future after residency. Having options is fantastic, and a little overwhelming. It was just last week that I finally let go of hospitalist as a true contender – when I look at what is most important to me and mine, avoiding working nights and weekends was near the top of the list. And I do love outpatient medicine these days – it seems so much more gratifying to cultivate relationships and see how the story unfolds than it does to efficiently navigate folks through the inpatient world. Although I’m keeping my options open by doing some inpatient work too.

I’m joining a small practice in a (relatively) small town. The girls want goats, Honey wants a shop, Teenage Boy wants his driver’s permit, and I want to sit back, enjoy the ride, and find out what flavor of baby this is in July!

Jonesie is a third year internal medicine resident, mom of 3.5, wife to Honey, embracing her love of primary care and wondering what happened to the rest of the pistachio ice cream.

a single step

I have been blessed with an inherent sense of personal responsibility, finely honed by my environment as a child.  I learned at an early age that my actions and decisions carry meaning and consequence.  This is a trait that has served me well over the years, at times providing opportunity to grow through recognition of my own failings, and at others freeing me from shouldering responsibility where it was not mine to carry.  Personal responsibility is an important value that I strive to pass on to my children and one I am proud to see developing in Teenage Boy. 

Financial responsibility is an area that has provided a great arena of growth for me.  Like many, I made foolish financial decisions in my youth and have paid off large credit card balances on no less than 3 separate occasions.  Painful lessons, but I have now been credit card free for more than 5 years and it was worth every penny.

My path to medical school was winding and long, and my medical education includes an extra 8 years between undergraduate and medical school – years spent in other graduate program(s) and/or working full time.  This foray off the beaten path coupled with attendance at the most expensive “state” medical school in the country culminated in nearly half a million dollars in student loan debt – mostly through repeated capitalization of old debt and accumulation of higher interest private loans.  Residency training has not afforded me opportunity to begin repaying any of this debt (other than paying on two private loans which ran out of forbearance time). Although I am finally not accruing new debt, the capitalization continues.  The personal burden of this financial responsibility can only be described as crippling.  It has been shaping my career plans, my ability to save for retirement, my hopes for the future, my conversations with Honey and ultimately my relationships with patients and medicine in general.

Student loan reform allows me to seriously consider practicing medicine as a primary care physician in a smaller town instead of having to work as a hospitalist just to make enough to make my monthly loan payments. That debt is my financial responsibility.  I am the person who signed on the dotted line and signed the loan checks every term.  Part of me feels that it is unfair that there is consideration being made for student loan reform, and that I am shirking my financial responsibility.  But another part of me wonders – Should my choice to go to medical school carry with it crippling financial burden? Was going to medical school a foolish financial decision? I’ve dedicated much of my life to earn the privilege and honor of dedicating the rest of my life to patients – and I appreciate any effort toward relieving some of this financial burden so I can focus on what’s important. 
 
It’s a single step (which does not address private student loans), and I’m looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Jonesie is a third year medicine resident living with Honey, Teenage Boy, Big Girl, and Baby Girl and hopes to one day soon know where she’ll be working July 1, 2012 so she can give Sallie Mae her new address.

It hurts so good

I’ve come to the conclusion that internal medicine residency is precisely 273 days too long. Yes, there is more to learn. At this point in training, however, the protective womb of attendings can start to become a bit suffocating.

Like the last month of pregnancy, the end of residency is perhaps meant to be painful in some ways – it does make a person really really want it to be over, therefore making the pain of transition a little less.

By now, many of my classmates have decided exactly what they will be doing 274 days from now. I’m still having a bit of an identity crisis, and every time I’m asked “what are you doing next year?” I have an adrenaline-induced arrhythmia. It happened 5 times today on wards.

You see, above almost all else, I am a planner. I like to know who, what, where, and when. My family and colleagues see this as an endless well of teasing and poking fun – “what are you doing July 3rd of 2014?! (hee hee)” “I can’t believe you know that you’re on overnight call on a friday 3 months from now!”. I don’t think it’s because I need to feel like I’m in control, I just have this ridiculous fear that if everything isn’t planned out that somehow an opportunity will be missed or that inefficiencies will creep unwelcome into our lives. By planning, tasks can be consolidated, trips can be made, days off can be squeezed of every last drop, and life can be lived.

This is not to say that I’m not a fan of spontaneity – I just like to have it planned (like the surprise I’m planning for Honey – shhhh). (and yes, I do realize how ridiculous this sounds).

So, where am I going to be July 2nd of 2012? Stay tuned. My response for the curious folks at work who want to know? My standard answer so far is “I have no idea. What do you think I should do?”.  I’ve gotten some interesting suggestions ;)

Jonesie is a third year medicine resident, mom of 3 (14, 5, soon-to-be-3), and lucky wife to Honey.  She is now accepting suggestions regarding what she should do with the rest of her life, and more importantly where she should do it – current big (ish) city, smaller town with acreage options, somewhere in between?!?

Simple favors

Today, in an effort to make more than we spend for once, I started working extra shifts for a company who does social security disability exams. I do not decide whether a claimant is disabled, I merely compile the history and physical exam so that someone else who will never see the claimant can make the decision. It was an interesting day, and some of the claimants had been waiting months for their exam. I have just a few thoughts for everyone out there needing objective documentation of the functional limitations they have which may qualify them for federal funding.

Please, when you show up for your disability exam (or any other exam for that matter):

1. Know which knee hurts. Or at least know which type of joint hurts.
2. Have a general idea of what decade you first starting having back pain.
3. Think about how to describe your pain. I know asking you to qualify “it hurts like a mother-f’er” may be asking too much, but when you can use words like “I have shooting pain down my leg when I walk”, it helps me figure out what may be wrong, how to help you, and if you have functional limitations.
4. Know your family history, be able to pick your medications out of a lineup, and familiarize yourself with your employment history.
5. Do not think that I will be impressed by the fact that you have filed 11 separate worker’s comp claims.
6. Don’t be nervous. I’m not going to judge you, be mean to you, tell on you, or trick you. I’m here to help relay objective data to social security. It’s that simple.
7. Take your blood pressure medicines the morning of your appointment so your blood pressure doesn’t keep me from doing your exam because I’m sending you to the ER with hypertensive emergency instead.
8. Do not bring your small children and leave them unattended.
9. Turn. Off. Your. Cellphone. Or at the very least, don’t answer it when I’m listening to your heart.

And the number one request from medical assistants and physicians across the country:

Bathe and/or brush your teeth at least once the week prior to your appointment.

Jonesie is mom to Teenage Boy (14 omg!), Big girl (5), and Baby girl (2), wife to Honey (her high school sweetheart who still makes her heart race), and a third year internal medicine resident (wahoo, 10 months left!) who still thinks it is an honor and a privilege to be a physician. Despite what she may say here or in real life.

concession to the grocery store woman

For the last many years of my medical training, I have grown accustomed to intermittent feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty.  As perpetual learners, most physicians balance medical knowledge with some degree of uncertainty and “is this the right treatment path for this patient?”, as every patient-diagnosis pair is unique and most don’t fit tidily into treatment algorithms.  In fact, we are taught to deal with uncertainty and self-doubt in medicine so that these feelings don’t cripple decision-making or cause unnecessarily and potentially harmfully conservative treatment plans or overuse of testing.  I don’t think I realized that physicians sometimes don’t know for sure what to do until I started medical school.  The truth is, we often make what we think is the best decision based on the information we have, the preference of the patient, and our extensive medical training.

My proficiency as a mother is ever-changing as my kids and I continue to grow, and I often wonder if I’m doing the right thing or if I’m good enough as a mother.  I don’t deal with feeling of inadequacy in motherhood as well as those in medicine, though.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I actually realized that once again, medicine and mothering are parallel universes, conjoining streams flowing toward a determined river.  You see, when I talk to other mothers or read the blogs of mothers I admire it is apparent that feelings of inadequacy are just as prevalent among mothers as they are among physicians.  Yes, both jobs require confidence and the ability to make decisions quickly (sometimes with little or insufficient data), but women I know in each job often report self-doubt, feelings that others are doing it better, and the never-ending feeling of being constantly criticized/measured up/judged.

Either I’m surrounded by incompetent mothers and physicians, or there’s a trend here.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store.  Without kids.  Standing in the meat aisle, I spied a roast.  A roast, I thought to myself, sounds nice.  I parked my cart and surveyed the options before picking up a nice-looking slab of meat with both hands.  Now, this was not my maiden voyage into the meat aisle of a grocery store.  Apparently, I’m so good at learning that I can do it just about anywhere.  Mouth agape, holding a juicy slab of meat dripping sero-sanguinous fluid through my fingers onto the grocery store floor, I was stunned.  What had happened to the nice protective wrap that has always before kept the cow insides from touching my outsides?

The next 15 minutes should have been captured on camera (and maybe they were – I hope so).  I turned to the general public for help.  Nothing.  Shoppers walked by, avoiding eye contact completely or looking at my dripping meat and walking right on by.  A woman with three well-behaved small children in her cart cruised up to the meat aisle.  (Seriously, three well-behaved children not requiring bribes or threats sitting in their seats on their bottoms.  I am a terrible mother).  Aha!  This miracle-worker mother will help me! 

She reached in front of me with a kind smile and ripped a clear bag off the roll.  Thinking she would open it for me, I turned and held the roast up toward her.  She backed away from my bloody offering in horror, flipped her bag inside out and picked up my roasts’neighbor, handily following sterile procedure.  Then, she smiled again (yep, perfectly white teeth) and moved on down the road, likely wondering what that crazy lady with the roast was doing out in public.  I don’t think she had a clue that I needed help, and I would’ve asked her if I wasn’t mesmerized by her statuesque children.

Hand sanitizer!  In my purse!  After using no less than 14 of the clear plastic bags in a feeble attempt to contain the contamination, I used paper towels to open my purse and get out the hand sanitizer.  Success, my sterile procedure muscle memory took over and not a single e.coli bacterium touched my purse.

It was about that time that a store employee asked me if I needed any help.  I can’t believe he wasn’t laughing hysterically – I’m convinced they were upstairs watching me and someone finally got sent to help me to avoid further contamination of their store.

So, to the woman at the grocery store with the three well-behaved children:  Bravo!  Bravo!  Bravo!  I concede to your skills as a mother, a meat-picker-upper, and a fashionista. 

I acknowledge my feelings of inadequacy in motherhood now, as I have in medicine for a while.  In fact, I embrace them.  With the naming of the feelings comes a feeling of calm and reassurance that I can navigate these familiar waters.  After all, I’ve done it for years.

Never say never

LifeFlight lands and the flight nurses come running down the hall, chest compressions underway, into a room with our waiting code team.

I run the PEA arrest code with a team I’ve worked with countless times before, everyone efficiently doing their part.

After 4 cycles of CPR, finally, a shock-able rhythm.

48 hours of drips, arrhythmias, shock, complications, desperation, tears, and hope.

Slowly, the young mother starts to respond to her husband keeping vigil at her bedside.

Extubated and with normal vital signs, she transfers out of the ICU on day 5 – only to be replaced 30 minutes later with “56 yo M with cardiogenic shock”.

And the cycle begins again.

I am smack in the middle of the last month of ICU I may ever do in my life.  I’ve worked with fantastic new interns this month, and have truly enjoyed welcoming them and encouraging their curiosity, enthusiasm, and hope.  I see a lot of myself in all of them, particularly one as she is pumping for her 6 month old much like I did at the beginning of my intern year.

The new schedule, reflecting the new ACGME work hours, seems to be treating them well and they overall are well-rested and remaining compassionate and enthusiastic despite some brutally busy days.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Honey and I have been doing a lot of talking and prioritizing of late as we’ve entered the final stretch of my training.   We’ve been talking about what we want our lives to look like over the next few/many years, and how to structure my future job to give us what we are looking for.  Here’s the short list:

  1. Time with family, including a day off during the week
  2. Giving Honey time to follow his path to career happiness
  3. Finding a job with a consistent schedule
  4. Finding great people to work with in a supportive and efficient setting

Yup, planning on working less than “full” time – hopefully about .8 time or so. 

You may be thinking to yourself that the job qualities I have described above do not fit with that of an intensivist or even a hospitalist…

We recently were asked to write about the most rewarding times as a physician we have had during residency.  My writing wasn’t about the resuscitations in the ICU, the great saves or even the near misses at death’s door.  Nor did I write about the rewarding times spent supporting family members through difficult decision making in the ICU.

I wrote about a clinic patient.  And as I wrote about her, I thought about a handful of other clinic patients who touched me in a way an ICU patient never could.

This patient in particular has helped shape me into the doctor I am today and the doctor I’ll be tomorrow.  She has shared her journey with me over the last 2 years from diagnosis through treatment and now into the final stage of life.  She has entrusted her care to me and we share a close relationship that has many of the qualities of a friendship.

In the end, I need the relationships.  I love the relationships.  Turns out I may be an outpatient doctor after all.

The end of the beginning of the end

It’s that time of year again.  The time when medical students and residents graduate to the next level of training.  We celebrated graduation last Friday for our little program and it was bittersweet.  Last year, my class celebrated knowing that intern year was over and that we were still safe entering the solid middle of residency.  This year, as I applauded those above and below me I realized just how close I am to being at the end of a long row I’ve hoed.

But then again, it’s not really the end at all.  In fact, it’s really just the beginning.   I feel like I’ve been waiting and preparing to be a doctor for so long that I’m not sure what I’ll do when it’s finally here.  I’m a little afraid that Christmas Day will not be as awesome as I have imagined over the years but know in my heart of hearts that it will be even more amazing that I could ever have imagined – just like when I was little.  Thankfully, I have one more year to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  Truth be told, I’m glad.

We just hung out for the first time with our next door neighbors who moved in 3 years ago.  They have 2 kids the same ages as big girl and baby girl, and he’s working in the automotive industry but thinking about going to medical school.  She stays at home with the kids, which I a job that is way too hard for me.  I excitedly pounced on his interest in medicine and effusively went on and on about how amazing my life and journey has been but also insisted that she talk to Honey to get the real deal.

I’ve been spending most of my free time prioritizing what is important to me and mine, and talking to Honey about what kind of job I want in a year.  It’s been an exhausting process and I feel somehow cheated that I have to focus on just a small part of this wonderful life I’ve had over the last 2 years…  stay tuned, fearless readers.  There are some big changes in the wind, and I’m differentiating more and more as the days go by. 

I am starting third year in the ICU with the spankin’ new interns – not my first choice, but I really can’t wait.  It’ll be a total blast to welcome them into the fold and hopefully help them have as much fun as I did intern year.  I’m truly privileged to be a part of this living being we call medical education.

The girls are amazing, Honey is as hot as ever, and big brother is visiting his mom for the next 3 weeks.  I have miraculously fallen into a week off at the end of June and am planning another pilgrimage down south with the girls (brother will be at summer camp…). 

Once again I find myself in awe of my blessings and so very grateful for the privilege and honor of being a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a physician.

Oh, and did I mention that my sil has finished her last round of chemo?  Suck it, cancer.

Put up or shut up

Many people have felt it necessary to comment on my choice of career of late.   One of my own (Dr. Karen Sibert) has published an editorial in the NY Times chastising me and thousands of other women for choosing a balance between work and life.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/opinion/12sibert.html

I’d like to set the record straight on something.  I do not have an obligation, moral or otherwise, to work full time as a physician.  I do not “owe” society my life, my happiness, my balance, my being.  I am a better physician when I have some time away to replenish the well. 

Today for morning report, a graduating resident presented “self-care for the physician”, a review of physician burnout, contributing factors, and mitigating approaches.  As each resident and faculty member went around the room and described their approach to handling the daily stress of being a physician, it occurred to me that these times they are a changin’.  As our program director put it, “It’s amazing to me that we are sitting in this room talking about and naming something that we all experienced throughout our training and careers – and better yet, teaching and learning skills to identify and care for burnout in ourselves and our colleagues.”

My med school class was about 50% women.  However, nearly 70% of my graduating class answered “part time or half time” to the survey question “what do you anticipate your career looking like 10 years after graduation?”.   Why is this?

The study of physician burnout is not new.  There are studies quoting things like “nearly 40% of surgeons don’t feel their career affords them enough time for themselves or their family”.  There are new terms like “compassion fatigue” (shockingly similar to PTSD) to describe what happens when doctors lose the ability to care.  Like an overused muscle, our emotions simply quit.

It is not just women who are transitioning to or planning on a part-time career in medicine.  It is physicians of all ages, genders, and specialties.  The daily stress of being a trusted healer responsible for the lives of others can be unbearable. 

It is unfortunate that anyone feels the need to attempt to impose some ridiculous morality on me.  I’m not sure why so many people have suddenly become interested in my career choices, but I can guarantee you that a well-rested and balanced physician is who I want taking care of me and mine. 

You want to change the face of health care and do something to make strides toward lessening the physician shortage?  I can think of hundreds of ways to do it without attacking the future of medicine and placing blame on those of us who choose to see the marathon at the end of the sprint. 

Women in medicine are not the problem.  On the contrary, we can be the solution – if we work together, support each other, and offer a hand to those reaching up to follow in our steps.  

So no, I am not going to work full time as physician.  What I owe society, and myself, is to be the best doctor I can be.  How I accomplish that, the reasons behind my choices for work-life balance, the number of kids I choose to have, and the countless other personal decisions I have the right as a working American to make are simply none of anyone else’s business.

On princesses

I met a woman today in line while selling back used books.  This is quite the environment to meet someone in.  It’s surprisingly personal to unload boxes of books, presenting little pieces of your life to complete strangers in exchange for money.  I’ll have to admit that the $27 cash I walked out with was about 0.01% of the once-upon-a-time “value” of those books, but the happiness of not having those boxes in the place-where-we-used-to-keep-our-cars was worth a lot more than that.

Anyway, this woman somehow started telling me about the sheer lack of princesses in her life.  She has proudly raised three girls to tween-dom without subjecting them even once to the abuse that is the world of princesses.  It seems she is morally opposed to the objectification imbued by the princess industry and wanted to offer her daughters more than a square hole for a future.   We chatted for a while about this, and I learned how hard it is to prevent the princess from infiltrating your home; after telling her I had two little girls at home, she gave me lots of advice about how to go about accomplishing this.

I was walking out to my white chariot, 27 bucks in hand, when I saw the woman getting into her car.  Which was right next to mine (of all the parking spots in all the world…).  Without blinking, I waved goodbye and opened the sliding door to put away my bag, unabashedly exposing the princess-plastered interior.  I think she may have gotten some on her.

On the way home, I thought about this quite a bit.  For at least 5 whole minutes, I wondered if feeding into Big and Baby girls’ princess fetish was harmful in some way. 

Tonight, I was “reading” Baby girl a book (aka watching her turn the pages really fast and point at random pictures).  Yes, it was a princess book.  Know what Baby girl calls every princess?  “Mommy”.

I wear many hats in life (and have been called many different things) but alas I do not own a crown (yet?).  It is very clear to me that Baby girl is not at all identifying with the physicality of the princess motif (in fact, I should probably pull out the eye chart and test her).  I am proud that Baby girl identifies such a group of strong independent young women as teachers, leaders, forward-thinking, loving, funny, supportive caregivers.  At least that’s who my mom is to me. 

To all those dragons and wicked witches out there – watch out for this next generation of princesses.  They’re tough.  And to the lady at the bookstore – the sparkle does eventually wear off.

To be an intern

Match day has come and gone and much like the final four, there were some major upsets.  Hopefully by now all the interns have found a ship.  And if they are like me, they are beginning to feel a sense of impending doom of intern year as it speeds recklessly towards them.

Be not afraid, young doctors.  We are here with you to welcome you into the family, and to help you navigate this chapter of your training.  Never again in your life will you have the opportunity for personal and professional growth that you will have this year.  I posted the following a while back on the resident forum, and wanted to post it again here.

Go.  Live the dream.  Learn, grow, teach, laugh, and cry.  It will be one of the best years of your life.  I wish for you kind and gentle residents, flexible and helpful attendings, patient and understanding nurses, patients who make you think about them long after you’ve gone home, and a family who loves to cuddle.  I wish for you the confidence to lean on family and friends and the support of generations of physicians before you. 

Be nice to everyone.  Including yourself.

Just before intern year, one of my mentors told me that before she started her intern year her uncle gave her some advice.  “Don’t wish away this year”, he said.  “Don’t wish that you were done with this admission, this call, this week, this rotation, this year, this residency.”  “It goes too fast, and it is your life.  Don’t ever wish away your life.”

Everything that we do, every unanticipated twist and turn our lives takes belongs to us.  It’s hard not to wish it away sometimes, to dream about life a week/month/residency/chemo treatment/birthday from now.  I try hard to be here and now and not wish it away too much.

The intern I spent last night with in the ICU *hates* 30 hour shifts.  She’s three weeks into the ICU rotation, and has a few more Q3 calls to go.  She was miserable the whole night and didn’t seem to enjoy a single minute of it.  “I hate my life” she said.  “No wait, I don’t hate my life, I hate overnight calls.”  When I pointed out that her life right now consists of getting ready for, doing, and recovering from said overnight calls, she paused for a moment and replied “well, I guess this is a month of my life I’ll never get back”.

I’m interested to see how the work hours changes will affect the morale of the intern.  But I continue to be amazed at just how much attitude impacts our lives.  If your life sucks, it will suck.  My beautiful brave sister in law fights for her life every 21 days with a smile and a positive attitude, even when it’s obvious she doesn’t feel like smiling. 

Welcome home!