family

Two “adults.”
Four children - oldest is 9, youngest is 2.
Two dogs, one of whom has a cast on his right hind leg, where he had a tib-fib fracture repaired (that adorable lug squoze through a hole the other dog dug under the fence, and acquainted his hind end with a passing car).
Thirteen or so chickens (hens all - the roosters found new homes) round out the menagerie.

Other than the canine’s healing leg, everyone remains well, and all are, as always, cantankerous.

work

I’m a first-year oncology fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It’s a good gig.

I never really had that whole “med student syndrome” thing, where you think you have all the diseases you’re learning about. Now I have a serious case of “oncology fellow syndrome,” where every symptom is probably the first herald of cancer.

Despite that, this is the most humane I’ve felt while practicing medicine, and the most rewarding experience I’ve had at work since starting the transition to physician.

Cancer sucks, but oncology is awesome.

other

Ted Hawkins’ song “Sorry You’re Sick” reminds me of the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and the uncomfortable and sublime truth that all medicine is palliative medicine.

This now page was last updated 2022-12-19.