June 2019 – Physician In Numbers

Fitness Log #36

Each week I have been logging my exercise. Mostly this is an exercise for myself; it has, on occasion, prompted me to get up and move (“for the blog”).

It is also meant for encouragement, in case a busy reader wants to know how other people get their recommended exercise; I don’t think it’s easy to get enough exercise these days, and I think it does people a disservice to imply that it is. Our lives are busy, and yet, you have to take care of your health.

What You Miss

The other day I read a blog post detailing the “Best Day Ever.” The author is retired, and has a lovely day fishing, playing tennis, watching his wife mow several lawns. Despite the fact that I don’t fish, play tennis, or want to mow lawns (even with a nifty riding mower), I was so jealous.

Monday Melange #2

Between work and a summer cold, I just am not up to writing a full blog post for Monday. I thought this would be a good time to link to a few posts by other people I found interesting.

Fitness Log #35

Each week I have been logging my exercise. Mostly this is an exercise for myself; it has, on occasion, prompted me to get up and move (“for the blog”).

100 Blog Posts

I can’t quite believe it, but last week I published my 100th blog post.

I never published my 6-month anniversary post, so today I wanted to review all those 100 posts. Hold on to your hat!

Fitness Log #34

Each week I have been logging my exercise. Mostly this is an exercise for myself; it has, on occasion, prompted me to get up and move (“for the blog”).

It’s not any easier if you are the doctor.

Future Me, the June Follow Up

At the end of October 2018, I wrote about 10 Steps to Future Me. I was a bit worried that I would be cutting back on work but frittering away that extra time. Those 10 steps were meant to clarify my personal goals: improving myself, and/or finding new activities to give my life some purpose.

In mid-February 2019, I reviewed my goals from October, and came up with some new ones. I had planned to check in again at the end of May, around Memorial Day.

Memorial Day has come and gone, and with it a lot of time spent with family, as my Dad had a health crisis. He is doing better, and now that I am home, I thought it might be time to review my progress towards my goals.

Spending That Future Raise

At the beginning of this month, I sent in a check to my mortgage company that was going to cover the “outstanding principal amount” for my mortgage. This may not be my last check–the amount listed was not the payoff amount–but the fact remains that I should soon have a lot more money available in my monthly budget.

This is likely the last time I will get such a salary bump, and I want to be smart about how I use it. Though I wrote about this one month ago, I am still turning over in my mind all the possibilities for using this extra money. The amount is not insignificant: the payment towards principal (including an amount to “round it up”) and interest is 22% of my take-home salary each month.

Since I am still thinking about it, I thought it might help me to be very specific about what I could do with it. If there are any recent residency grads about to start their new attending jobs, with their new attending salaries, I am hoping that this may help them think through what they will do with their bigger income.

Fitness Log #33

Each week I have been logging my exercise. Mostly this is an exercise for myself; it has, on occasion, prompted me to get up and move (“for the blog”).

It’s not any easier if you are the doctor. Especially when dealing with emergencies.

Sometimes 90% is more than enough

Yesterday was my first day back after a 3-day weekend. I had planned this absence, as I had a meeting out of town. Despite having cut my hours last fall, I still found myself going home late yesterday with lots of work to do from home.