Physician In Numbers – Page 49 – A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined

My Goals Versus COVID-19

The weather is wintry, but the lengthening days tell my hind-brain that Spring is coming. And in my home, Spring means Spring Cleaning. Tidying. Emptying the kitchen cabinets and all the closets of old, unusable items.

On the other hand, this year we have the novel coronavirus, the cause of COVID-19, making its way across the globe. There are currently only a few known cases in the USA, but very likely there will be many more soon.

It has been 11 years since the swine flu outbreak, but I do recall hospital policy: you were not to come to work if febrile. If you had proven swine flu, you were to stay home for quite some time, until you were unlikely to spread your infection to patients and other staff.

My husband is very concerned about the possibility of having to self-quarantine. In addition to the possibility that we might get stuck in our home for a while, he also has to worry about his 2 elderly parents, who live just a few miles away. He worries about possible food shortages and how they will get supplies if this virus hits our city hard.

Fitness Log #71

Just because I am a doctor, and encourage patients every day to exercise, doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own issues with getting sufficient exercise. Long hours, tiring days, family obligations, illness: they are all stumbling blocks, no matter what your occupation.

I have been recording my exercise weekly, mostly to keep myself accountable for reaching my goal (sometimes this works, sometimes I miss). If anyone reads this, I hope they will take this as encouragement to keep going, acknowledgement that it isn’t always easy.

Springing Hope

Last week I complained about the grey days of winter.

This weekend I felt some hopeful stirrings, with hints of spring.

Here are 5 things that made me happy last week.

A Money Date Interview

When my father became very ill last spring, I realized that my mom didn’t really know everything she needed to in order to manage the household bills.

I started thinking about my own household: I have been taking care of the bills ever since we got married. Most of our discussion about the bills has gone something like this:

Me: I’m going to pay the bills this morning.

Him: Thank you for taking care of this.

Me (sometimes): Can you believe this water bill?

Him: I don’t know what to do about this, I do a lot of cleaning.

Clearly, we haven’t been communicating well about our expenses. I wasn’t really sure that my husband would be able to manage things if I were incapacitated.

Before our last vacation (which conveniently fell over the first of the month), I asked him if he would pay the bills that month. Of course, I would help him.

This would be our first real money date. I asked him if I could interview him afterwards, to see what he thought about it.

I note that my husband has a strong internal censor.

Fitness Log #70

Grey Winter Days

I am trying to work on a positive attitude, but I confess this is my least favorite time of year. It’s cold, and grey, and the sun goes down too early.

The holidays are over: no more lights, decorations, parties.

Walking home is less likely (see above), so I get less fresh air and exercise.

Since it is dark and cold, evenings are spent indoors, usually watching TV or movies. No outings for me, as I am a responsible worker who has early office hours.

Buying My Own Bling

It’s a funny thing, jewelry.

If you think about it rationally, you’ll have to agree that it is expensive and a poor investment. Like a car, the price of almost any piece you might buy drops as soon as you take it home.

On the other hand, jewelry has been coveted and valuable for thousands of years. It can help dress up an outfit, start a conversation, or just straight up signal wealth and status. If you like a piece, it can work for you for many decades, unlike a car or cell phone, which is unlikely to last more than one or two.

I have to confess, I was able to accumulate plenty of jewelry over the years as gifts. My mother (who loves this stuff) has given me plenty of lovely pieces, especially for special birthdays (16, 18) and graduations.

Gold earrings, 4th–early 3rd century B.C., Etruscan. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Earrings are easy presents for birthdays/holiday/souvenirs. I have given and received a number from girlfriends and relatives.

Of course, who can forget the tradition of the engagement ring and wedding ring. I suppose I decided on my wedding ring, but my fiance picked out the engagement ring; we looked at rings together, but he made the final choice himself and surprised me.

It was therefore an odd event for me, last year, when I decided I was going to buy something expensive for myself.

Fitness Log #69

Medicine And FI, Fast And Slow

I recently attended a conference on Physician Wellness, during which we were asked to do an exercise in pairs. Alone, we were to write down three goals at our job. Then, we were to ask our partner about a time when their work aligned with those goals, and how they felt.

My partner for this exercise was a hospitalist, who talked about the joy in finding time to really talk to a patient. When you don’t have to rush off to the next emergency or phone call, and can have a longer talk about who they are when well, or what has been happening, or just listen to someone who is sick and needs support.

For me, I thought about a visit I added on during the holidays, with no one scheduled afterwards. We had time to talk beyond the allotted 15 minutes, and to cover a few more problems, to build a stronger connection. I even had time to write the office note, while my house staff took care of business in the hospital.

In both cases, what we wanted was enough time to do our jobs well.