I just added a new post, but it ended up underneath the Valentines Treats one. Check it out. Also, for those of you who are new to the blog. If you click on the time (I.E.7:30), you can add a comment!
Yesterday I was missing my dear husband and my children were longing to play with Daddy. It's always worse when I know he is going to be on call two weekends in a row...this time going for a 19 day stretch with one day off (and some think radiology is a more "cush" residency). Sometimes the fact that we are in this for 10 years seems managable, other times it feels like an eternity. So yesterday I was thinking about the amount of time that we and he (my sweetie) have devoted to becoming a Doctor.
At the end of year 10 (4 years of medical school, 6 years of residency, intern year and fellowship year) he will have spent about:
3,450 Days
3,300 5am Study Sessions
2,500 Late Night Study Sessions
29,200 Working Hours
1,752,000 Minutes in residency and school
3 moves across the country
(From L.A. to MO. From MO to Utah and from Utah to Ohio)
So patients be good to your doctors. They have spent an enormous amount of time and energy and made incredible sacrifices to help you live longer, healthier lives. Many of my friend's resident husbands work even longer hours than Cody. And for those of you who believe that men and women who choose to become doctors are doing it for the money, lets chat, and until then remember that 25 years after medical school and residency is through chances are that your doctor is still paying on his student loans.
Two weeks ago my Mom flew to N.Y. to meet with Dr. Boachi, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in Scoliosis. She has seen several Scoliosis specialists in different parts of the country in the past year as she prepares to undergo major surgery on her spine. At age 14 my Mom spent a full year lying flat in bed after having 8 of her vertebra fused. At the time doctors thought this to be the best cure for severe Scoliosis. My Mom has experienced severe pain every day for many years. The good news = Dr. Boachi is willing to operate on her and without going into details, he will take her spine from a 65 degree angle to a 30 degree angle in hopes of aleviating some of her pain. The bad news = She will have to undergo a major surgery in N.Y.C. on May 20th of this year and spend many months recovering from it. My sister Kelty will be with my Mom during her entire stay in N.Y., my brother Arian will be there during the surgery and for some time after and I will be flying out to N.Y. for about 6 days one week after the surgery. She also has dear friends who are on board to help my Mom as she recovers.
Other highlights of her trip included: Visiting the local childcare center, floating down the Rio Grande on the raft (pictured above) and eating real Jamaican food cooked by Dorothy.
