The story of an exhausted doctor daughter

I am a doctor daughter. I am exhausted. My emotions are bubbling close to the surface, and I fear that at any moment, someone will do or say something to me that will cause me to lose control, which I’m not allowed to do because I’m also a female physician in a leadership role, and our emotions must be held in check. I watched one of my mentors be memorialized last week after he lost his battle with cancer. This week, I will watch my father, a man who has meant more to me in my life than any other except my husband, go through a revision prostate surgery, a bone marrow biopsy, and an inpatient stay for a urinary tract infection that was on the verge of turning into urosepsis. This isn’t the first time I have felt like this. A few years ago, my mom was admitted to the hospital in septic shock after a simple lithotripsy procedure in an outpatient setting. Two weeks and one major surgery later, she was finally home: weak, disoriented, and tired. But she was alive, and she has recovered completely; a miracle when you think of the mortality rates with sepsis. The morning he was admitted, my father called me at 6:22 a.m. to tell me that he felt horrible and was getting in the car to come to where I live to be seen. I live 2 hours away from him. Moreover, he felt so poorly that he was letting my mom drive; this had to be an emergency. When they arrived, we were ushered into the emergency department after his internist called to tell them we were coming. Continue reading ... Y...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Cancer Pediatrics Source Type: blogs