Cortisone--left hip

Last year I was a triathlete. Standing on a podium I received a medal. With my training I was often surprised to find what I could actually do. It peeled away in layers. No running. No biking. No walking. No swimming. At first I asked what exercise, stretch could I do to recover. Now I ask what can I do to prevent surgery. There is no easy way back from here. Three months away from work to recover from hip re constructive surgery. I sought an ortho consultation, he circled a piece of my bone that shouldn't be there. Deformed hips- present all of my life. Do I ask how could this happen to me? Or do I rejoice for the 33 active years I enjoyed. Orthopedic surgery was the ONLY rotation I hated in med school. Funny. Something about the bone saw- never set well with me. PM&R seemed like a silly specialty when selecting a career. Now I go to see one, for a cortisone shot, for a cure.

Crazy Busy

It is accepted as a descriptor for life. I hear it all of the time. Balancing clinic schedules, surgeries, up-all-night calls, dropping at day care, laundry, groceries, the occasional sick kid/pet/grandparent. Living life in constant effort to keep afloat, buying extra time to do something extra for others, never addressing your own exhaustion.

This is not me. It could be, but it is not. What I have was designed to be better, more evolved, unified.

A Beginning

May 20th, 2000. I walked across the stage and they hooded me. We all recited the Hippocratic Oath. My roommate gave a moving speech about our life as medical students. The future was surely bright. We had no reason to think otherwise. When I think of my med school classmates and where they are now, most would say that the future is still bright. But there is something terribly wrong.