Wayfaring MD
And for the 5,000th time, let me clarify that I am female.
Disclaimer:
HIPAA is for reals, folks. All of my "patient stories" have been changed to protect patient privacy. I will change any or all identifiers, including age, location, race/ethnicity, sex, medical history, and quotes.
Just randomly took communion in the ER. That was kind of weird and awesome. Kind of messed with the reverence that usually goes along with the ritual though.
Patient with watery eyes
cranquis Asks:
wayfaringmd Said:
12) ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?
Guilty —a raisin when I was little.
26) are you happy with the person you’ve become?
I still need a lot of work, but yeah, so far so good.
72) you are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) what do you do with your remaining days? c) would you be afraid?
Of course I would tell everyone I was going to die. I’d want them to have time to cope with it. In my remaining days I’d quit residency, sell my house, get my affairs in order, and just hang out with my favorite people. No, I wouldn’t be afraid. Death is not to be feared when it’s not permanent ;).
82) what is your favorite word?
Right now it’s a tie between tintinnabulation and syzygy. I don’t get to use either word very often.
99) if the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?
No matter what you’ve done, Jesus forgives.
Anonymous Asks:
wayfaringmd Said:
Peace. Security. Grace.
When I was younger I worried all the time about where I would end up when I died. I had a series of rituals, laws, and superstitions that I followed in order to keep myself out of hell. Silly as that may seem, everyone does it. But only some find the grace that supersedes all rituals, laws, and superstitions and covers all sin. I found it the only way it can be found—through Jesus Christ—and I want to help others find it.
Family medicine fits me perfectly, but that fact was not always obvious to me. When I was 17, I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. The chief medical examiner for the FBI, to be exact. Upon hearing of my chosen career, my pastor replied, “that sounds like an interesting job. But just remember that you can’t tell dead people about Jesus.” In my mind, his comment was not a friendly joke, but a challenge to reconsider my life’s direction, and as such, I resented it. Little did I know then that this conversation would stick around in my mind and eventually lead me to family medicine.
After graduation I traveled to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip and, a few weeks later, to Chicago for another mission trip. The combination of first-time traveler’s shock at the poverty in Nicaragua and a newly discovered joy of helping others in practical ways weighed heavily on me. Added to those was an uncomfortable, yet compelling challenge to find creative ways to minister to people. I knew that there was a call on my life that could not be reconciled with my ambitions to be the next Dr. G.
wayfaringmd Said:
Hmm, tough question. I will say that if Jesus is really calling you into medicine, he will keep nagging you about it until you do what He wants you to do. That being said, Med school is hard. But it’s not impossible. We have several people in my class who got late starts and who are managing med school with kids at home (one guy in my class was 35 when he started med school!). It has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I’m single with no kids, so I can’t begin to imagine adding a husband and a baby into the picture. You’ll have to be very disciplined, that’s for sure.
Obviously, this is your decision. I can’t make it for you. But here are some questions you can ask yourself to help in making your decision.
1. What are my real motives for wanting to go into medicine? Pray about this a lot. Really figure out whether your desire is just yours or if it’s God’s will for your life.
2. Am I called to be a doctor specifically? Are paramedic, nursing and mid-level jobs (NP, PA) also options for me?
3. How will this affect my family? Medical school will be a huge stress on your marriage and will keep you from seeing your child like you would want to. Are you and your family prepared to face that? Being single made the decision easier for me, but since you’re married, your husband should be part of your decision making. Maybe God has called you to be a stay at home mom for now and will move you to medicine later.
4. Can I handle the course load? You’re still pretty far from medical school. Why don’t you work on finishing college and go from there?
Really my biggest advice to you is to pray about it with your husband. Pray for your next step to be revealed. God usually doesn’t show us our next 10 steps, but He’ll guide us to the next one. So focus on that.
Hope this helps, ravelbycassie.
My mom told me a few weeks ago that Christmas is going to be meager at our house this year, and that she doesn’t want any presents from anyone, and frankly, it made me excited. I have fussed at my family for years for their ridiculous Christmas spending. Last year I got so sick of it all that I was tempted to just come back to Macon and forget about all the Christmas hoopla. My mom and her family have always been ok with a “small Christmas”— a few gifts and a low key celebration, but my stepdad’s family goes all out with buying stupid gifts that no one wants and going broke, all to show their “love” for each other. I understand wanting to give to people to show your love for them, Christmas is not about going broke.
I got so fired up after watching this video, and I sent it to my family. My mom said that when she was growing up, she and her friends all made gifts for each other, and she and I agreed that that would be better than buying gifts. So we’re both going to encourage the family to make gifts instead of buy this year. That way 1) you have to think about what the person likes, so the gift might actually be something cool 2) the gift will be a total surprise 3) no one will go broke, and 4) Wal-mart doesn’t win ;).
So the idea of the video is to give the money you would have spent on stupid presents to someone who could actually use it. If we could get our whole family on board this year or next year, I’d like to donate the money to the water project I worked on this summer. The folks over there are starting to get people on board with digging wells or building big filters for the villages. But since these people are nomads, they have very little money, and you’d be amazed with what you could do with $1,000 over there.
If this actually works this year, I’d like to suggest a family mission trip (or local project…) over Christmas next year…. but we’ll see.
