Back At It

We hit the ground running after this past Christmas break. Right back into biochemistry. We will cover a couple of semester's material in 8 days. No, really. I'm not kidding. It includes genetics, too. Be a boy scout, Wannabees. Be prepared.

Caught a cold pretty much as soon as I arrived. Not terrible, but it does interfere with my ability to concentrate. Once again, as a caregiver, I hope I remember these moments and somehow gain the ability to truly place myself in the hospital booties of the patients who are lying on the operating table. We easily forget our sick moments and take our health for granted, but in those hours or days or months when illness strikes, our world is a mess and our hope ebbs. My goal is to recall this perspective.

From the words of Heraclitus: "It is not good for all your wishes to be fulfilled: through sickness you recognize the value of health , through evil the value of good, through hunger satisfaction, through exertion, the value of rest." If I can use these experiences of illness to change the way I treat others, I will not only recognize the value of health for my own sake, but I will provide better for others as I become more compassionate and seek more diligently to ease their suffering. As a physician, they will present me with the potential to become an enzymatic cascade of healthy change in people's lives. Yeah, Heraclitus, I think that would be good.