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The Day I wished I was Invisible
I’d never seen such a thing. A thick white snowy blanket enveloped the city. The temperature was so low that Lake Michigan had frozen over and appeared to rise above the ground. “Please come with me,” he pleaded. “This is a decision we’re both making!” “But the news says people should not leave their homes unless it’s totally necessary and you know how much I hate the cold!” I responded. My husband had just graduated from medical school and training for a specialty was the next step, which also meant we had to move far away from our country and our families. The third of several interviews for medical residency…
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The Day I left Home to come Home
“Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight,” the captain announced. My husband and I held hands and said a quiet prayer. Tears flowing down our faces spoke what our mouths couldn’t express. I closed my eyes and tried to obey the captain. The plane took off, leaving behind not only our country, but a piece of my heart as well. It seemed like yesterday when my husband surprised me with the news: “Honey, I just got an offer to work in the United States. It’s a private practice in Athens, Georgia, a college town near Atlanta.” “What?” I cried “But we don’t know anyone there, and our whole family’s here!”…
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Do you Trust like a Melon?
It was three o’clock in the morning when the cell phone rang. No, it shrieked. I was so sound asleep I didn’t know if it was an ambulance or a tornado siren in my bedroom. “Who is it?” My heart pounded and my body shook. “Calm down,” my husband said as he picked up his phone. One of the hardest things about having a physician husband is surviving night calls. That’s the other side of medicine that only the family gets to experience. “Why do you always expect bad news?” he was asleep before I could respond. It took my heart a while to calm down and my body to…
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The Other Side of Medicine
Doctors train for many years to treat and cure people. They thrive from watching patients get well and spend most of their adult lives pouring their time and energy for the welfare of others. As the wife of a doctor, I am on the other side of medicine, the family side. I lived through the sleepless nights and the never-ending days of training. Throughout many years I’ve experience waking up in the middle of the night to the ear-piercing sound of a pager, or the incessant ringing of the phone. I listen to his concerns about patients and witness his headaches after night shifts. He’s rarely present at school activities…
