Beets, Beets, Beets

Purple or golden
All sorts- with greens on top
every time I see a bunch
want to take them home for lunch
unfortunately,
the family
doesn't agree
with this homily.

Thoughts on days off

We just went on a family vacation, tagged on to work travel for dear husband. In the past traveling tagalong with him has not been fun. As a full time worker,living with the children all the hours of the day in somewhat unpredictable circumstances (due to travel) can lead to a lot of angst in me. Recently, things have been way better as I expect things to go wrong and lead the kids with a long leash, metaphorically speaking. I also expect way less from DH as the trips where we go tagalong are work trips for him.
I have been dying to go to Yosemite National Park and it was wonderful to go visit, what was less wonderful was the inability of the children, especially the younger one to hike. He would sit down in the parking lot, bawling out his resentment. Boy, that drove me crazy. I did manage to get some enjoyment from the trip- at least I saw the waterfall, El Capitan and Half Dome but I cannot wait to go back again, preferably on my own so that I can visit calmly on my own terms and with my own agenda.

Work-life balance and Medicine

I think my life is good,in terms of work satisfaction. The new work hour rules for residents may threaten that. I have been thinking about how I am going to manage 12hour shifts with the demands of my children's needs. Will my spouse be able to deal with their needs? They are after all his children,too.
I mentored two students who wanted to go into medicine and both of them were burning with questions regarding how I balance the demands of family with my work. I was somewhat surprised by their concerns as before my children, the thought of not being at work did not cross my mind. I loved what I did, and still do. Why is that the current generation is so obsessed with lifestyle? You first need to figure your life and the lifestyle will follow. Your work should make you jump out of bed ready to face the new day ahead with anticipation.
Let's see if I can cope with work inspite of these changes and maybe, come out stronger.

Writing Block and Bossypants

Been such a long time since I last wrote here.Think about writing all the time,life and my habit of procrastination intervenes.I read a lot and fancy myself as a writer, so it's really not good for my psyche to be quiet on paper and I admit there is a certain hubris to seeing your own words on the screen and thanks to the web all of us seem to have a voice.
Just read Bossypants by Tina Fey. The book apart from being funny(could not expect any less from her) has a real feel of her life so far. As a mother, I identify with her advice of hiding in the bathroom(been there, done that)and with the angst of deciding when to have children. I really enjoy her unabashed enjoyment of her job, she keeps calling it the best job in the world and even though I am not a comedy writer(except in my best dreams),I identify with her passion for her work.I loved finding feminism in the anecdotes that she chooses to tell and most importantly that the book is not a tell-all.A must read.As my husband says, he wishes that Sarah Palin would run for president so that he could see Tina Fey acting as Ms.Palin on SNL. Second that.

"Are you dying?"

My office is cold. Cold enough that I wear a jacket at work and have given up on the white coat. I have tried to get the temperature raised but have given up. My patients do not want to get undressed and today one of my patients asked me as I felt for neck lymph nodes- "Are you dying?" I answered "Of course, I am. Aren't we all? Some quicker than others." He smiled as he told me that my cold hands are not quite compatible with life.
This reminded me of another time when one of patients insisted that I could not be a healer- "A healer does not have cold hands". Luckily, I know many of my patients would disagree. Although, a healer is not how I would classify myself.

Death Valley- A drive-through weekend

Death Valley happens to be the largest National Park outside of Alaska and a weekend simply does not do it justice; but a weekend we had- so we piled up the kids, ourselves, assorted snacks into our dinky car and hit the road. We tried to visit a part of the southern end of the park.We drove through most of the park but we did do a few beginner's hikes. We were hamstrung by having to carry a child on our back, as the picture indicates.

Luckily, we had chosen a relatively cool time to go- we even found some ice and made the smallest snowman ever.
The first evening we were there, we hiked a little off the main road to look up to old gullies on the hillside and trudge over spongy waterladen sand. It was a no pressure hike limited only by the approaching sunset, like the novices that we are, we had not packed a flashlight with us.

The next morning after a carb laden breakfast we drove all the way to the actual park with the first stop being at the Emigrant pass. Here is a a much more professional view of all the amazing geology of it all.http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/etv08_vid_etvgeology/

Our most challenging hike has to be at the Zabriskie Point where we had to go down to the old river beds to get a better view of the rock formations and the river bed. The children complained but drag them down we did. We were rewarded by otherworldly sights. Our next stop was the badlands area which happens to be the lowest point in the western hemisphere. There has been recent rainfall which has lead to this area being wetter than usual

Inspiration

We were very lucky to have grand rounds by Faith Fitzgerald who was a great speaker and kept us very engaged with her magical medical mystery tour. Later on as we talked, I was extremely taken with her charm, authenticity and her love for the practice of medicine. It is so rare to find an Internist who retains their love of medicine and the patients who come to them.
One thing she said really resonated with me- I am paraphrasing but she said something like, if a hungry man goes to a grocery store and asks for food because he is hungry and the manager refuses to give him any, nobody bats an eyelid- the man runs a business and a business cannot be giving away its goods. Similarly, if a homeless man goes to a builder and insists that he be given shelter, nobody feels that he ought to be given a house. However, if a sick person goes to seek succor to a hospital and he does not get care, all of us are mortified and feel ashamed somehow.
This is why medicine cannot be a business.