I feel very grateful for my good health, although my slightly superstitious nature is now worried about a bus that is surely going to hit me! I’ve never broken a bone, never gotten Strep throat, and overall, have a pretty strong immune system. I am super grateful to live in a time of long life expectancies with accompanying knowledge on how to optimize healthy living: enough sleep, exercise, mobility/stretching, healthy food choices, and stress management. Of course, I have room to improve but I feel like the foundation is there.
My gratitude is even deeper because of the work I do. Life is pretty capricious, so I will take my good health for as long as it lasts. I certainly see people who have shifts that they never saw coming and it is life-changing in a way that people rarely ask for and rarely want.
Since I’ve started working in non-military medicine, the patient population has a much larger prevalence of serious medical conditions. This makes complete sense since the military consists of young-to-middle age adults who are pretty healthy. Military medicine exists to take care of those who become ill or injured but even when this happens, it tends to be in the context of one problem within an overall healthy individual. Outside of military medicine, the population is older and may have multiple medical conditions. It’s a challenge and an honor to take care of all patients and with the changing populations, it’s an engaging professional challenge and experience.
I’ve really enjoyed my time at a large academic hospital. Sometimes moments can get a little dicey, other times it’s completely smooth. Sometimes my scrubs are clean at the end of the day, sometimes I really need to change and shower (and I do!). I really enjoy the teamwork and collegiality of multi-disciplinary care. I work with so many smart, interesting people and it’s fun to collaborate and learn from them.
Alright, this entry is a little overly effusive, but I wanted a slight change from the brief, daily calendar type entries I’ve been writing. I’m really looking forward to the weekend and catching up on travelogues but that’ll come in a few more days!
THIS IS SO TRUE.
Every year for my birthday, I go for a run first thing in the morning… because I want to celebrate that I was able to get up, nothing hurts and I can move my body. I don’t take this for granted. Luckily, I’ve been very blessed when it comes to health because I’ve not had any major health issues, but I have people who are dear to me who struggle with major health issues and it really makes you stop and think and be grateful for your health.
I can imagine that as a healthcare worker, you get that perspective A LOT.
Such a great post and it is so easy to overlook the sheer wonder of having good health. So many people (the majority, perhaps?) are struggling with chronic conditions or devastating diagnoses. I complain about minor aches and pains, but if I can get out of bed without assistance, walk my kids to school, and otherwise navigate life, I have SO much to be grateful for. I’ve made a conscious effort to be more mindful of how privileged I am, also recognizing, sometime this good fortune could run out. Live my life now, and appreciate the level of health I have today – it is not guaranteed and is an incredible gift.