…where REAL medical advice meets REAL parenting, for better or for worse.
I am the mama and the doc, preferably in that order. Hey, before we get started, I have one ground rule:
NO MEDICAL ADVICE after 2 or more alcoholic beverages.
(You can ask my husband where that rule comes from, if you want to.)
So what exactly are we doing here, other than drinking slightly less than two alcoholic beverages?
We are here to talk shop. I (and my esteemed colleagues) have learned some stuff, and we’d like to share that stuff with you. We are going to check in about some real medical issues- some cradle to grave stuff!
…and why follow along? Well, I could tell you that I have been practicing medicine for fifteen years and I graduated from some prestigious institutions, with the six-figure student loan debt to prove it!
But the truth is that the most important thing I learned during 9 years of medical school, residency and fellowship was…
how to function with very little sleep.
And even more important than anything I learned during those years of training is the incredible humility that comes from raising tiny humans. Indeed, “parenting” (which is just a nice way of saying “trying to prevent those tiny people from killing themselves by walking in front of a car or wandering into the jaws of some apex predator,” ah wait, you also have to feed them and sometimes wash their hair even when they scream at you while you are doing so.)
We are often exhausted or at the end of our ropes, and sometimes just trying to stay afloat. The ability to grant ourselves grace in these challenging times makes us much better moms, and makes me a better doctor. One of my colleagues often says, “Just wrap your arms around whatever you can wrap your arms around,” referencing a challenging and often overwhelming work environment.
This also applies to parenthood! We can’t always be everything to everyone. We can’t be the unflawed mother, partner, friend, or daughter that we imagine! But we can do our best, and wrap our arms around our kids with a little help from our villages.
We are often exhausted or at the end of our ropes, and sometimes just trying to stay afloat. The ability to grant ourselves grace in these challenging times makes us much better moms, and makes me a better doctor. One of my colleagues often says, “Just wrap your arms around whatever you can wrap your arms around,” referencing a challenging and often overwhelming work environment. This also applies to parenthood! We can’t always be everything to everyone. We can’t be the unflawed mother, partner, friend, or daughter that we imagine! But we can do our best, and wrap our arms around our kids, with a little help from our villages.
Without judgment. OK mostly without judgment.
As I two-finger-typed these few paragraphs into a smartphone, I have been interrupted literally 5 billion times with various menial requests from my children. The only reason why I am able to finish up now is because I am standing in front of the stove cooking hot dogs. Oops, the hotdogs are burning.
A few notes on legalities… I have a healthy respect for authority, for the rules, and for the rule of law. But the “practice” of medicine is just that– and in order for this wealth of knowledge to serve us we must apply it in real time to our real lives! In my own “practice” I am often bending the rules to meet the needs of my patients and my community. Rules were made to be broken, right?!
That being said… a word of REALLY GOOD advice… you can die from inhaling a tablespoon of water.
SO make sure that you act responsibly, ask questions, and talk to your OWN doctor about any of these topics before taking my recommendations to heart. Stay safe out there!
Mama Doc for hire! 