Friday, May 30, 2014

Some thoughts

Yesterday was a decent enough day in the office. Lots of OB visits. Cute siblings bragging about "their" baby. Talking about birth control with some postpartum patients. Nothing unusual. I tell my patients when everything is fine: "You're boring." I said that a lot yesterday.

Boring is good. Boring means that things are going the way they are supposed to go. Boring means healthy moms, healthy babies. Boring means I may not know your name until 37ish weeks. THAT IS NOT A BAD THING!!!!!! Nonboring means I'm having the pre-eclampsia discussion at 33 weeks. Talking to you about scheduling a version versus a section. Sending you to the ultrasound room because I haven't found heart tones with the doppler.

Trust me, you want to be boring. And quite frankly, I'm too old for non-boring. Excitement is not a good thing in medicine.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Meditation

One of my dearest friends texted me recently. Her mother died after being in Hospice for a few weeks. My partner's dad just died. On Facebook, announcements of various teachers' obits are a regular on my newsfeed. I'm waiting for my mother to finally pass.

That's what being a 40-something is. We're staring at the realization that soon we'll be the oldest in the family. That we can't ask those ahead of us what to do. I look through our wedding album, only to realize that quite a few are now gone. Aunts, uncles, family friends. The giants from the past now exist only in our mind.

If that's being a grown up, take me back.