OK, so I realize I already quoted this Doors song in my first blog post in 2016. No,…I’m not a Doors fanatic. But I ask you, are there more apt words to describe the times we are currently living in than those from ‘Strange Days’?: “Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us […]
Sweat Equity or Serendipity?
Ever feel as though you are putting in maximal effort, but seeing very slow or little if any gains in your career? Yet, you are seeing some of your colleagues or acquaintances around you take major leaps forward. You start wondering what you are doing wrong and why ‘it’ is happening for everyone else, but […]
The Last Person I Would Have Expected To Do That
I was on my way to work on Friday June 8th, had just closed and locked the front door to my house, and was walking to my car when a notification from one of my phone’s news apps stopped me in my tracks. Anthony Bourdain was dead at the age of 61 and had committed […]
Off the Grid
I’m now mid-way through my fourth year as faculty and I did something this year for the first time over twelve years spanning medical school, general surgery residency, fellowship, and the first few years of my faculty position—I’ve never completely unplugged from work and really allowed myself to become immersed in vacation. Maybe part of […]
What to Remember and What to Forget
Being a surgeon is hard. But, I don’t think anyone who chooses to pursue a career as a surgeon really gains a full appreciation for the gravity of the job until you walk into the OR for first time and all the responsibility for what happens from the moment the case starts until the time […]
Simpler Times
As the lyrics to the Doors song say, “Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down.” Indeed, we live in crazy, scary times. Nearly every night, the lead news story is about global terrorism, domestic mass shootings, gun violence of one sort or another, or our current social and political landscape that […]
Where Did I Go?
Humor me for a moment and close your eyes—seriously. No matter where you are in your medical training or practice, try envisioning yourself before the responsibility of being an attending, before the years of medical training, before the decade of education, and ask yourself two simple questions. Are you the person you were before all […]