Would I Be A Doctor Again?

I’ve heard over and over again from some doctors how they’d never go through the process again and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.  So I’ll answer the question.  Would I be a doctor again?  To quote Sarah Palin, “You Betcha!”

In my experience, becoming a doctor has been very rewarding.  I can’t complain.  So where do I start explaining why?  Well, there are the belly-button pearls for one.  “Belly-button pearls?” you ask.  Yes.  Belly-button pearls.  You know, those wooly-booger types who let the lint in their belly fester and roll around with the hair just like a piece of sand in a clam.  After many moons, that simple piece of fuzz become a nice round, smooth, rock-solid belly-button pearl of great price.

Well, really there are some other nice benefits.  For one, especially in this economy, there is no shortage of requests for doctors in just about any part of the country.  Hopefully I won’t be searching anytime soon, but if I had to, I could almost pick where I want to live.  Of course I’m leaving near about as close as you can to Heaven without dying, so I’m thankful for that.  And how can a doctor complain when just the average salary of a primary care doctor is around $150,000?  That’s good enough for roughly being in the top 5% in the U.S.  And that’s not even including the fringe benefits of insurance and retirement.

Not only is the pay pretty good for an education that’s not much longer, if any than other post-grad professions, the time involved can also be quite satisfying.  Right now, I pretty much work 4 1/2 8-hour days a week with a day a week and one weekend a month of light call that often results in no phone calls or hospital admissions.  I’ve been in jobs as a doctor where I had no call whatsoever and worked more like 8:30 to 4:30 with a half-day off each week.  Throw in 4 weeks of vacation and another week of education and it rivals some of the best vacation packages around.

But there’s more than just money and time.  There’s the satisfaction of being able to help people.  There have been many times when I’ve been able to really come in handy for someone for whatever reason – maybe calling something in for a friend, maybe giving some realistic medical explanations for people confused by what they’ve heard.  Or maybe it’s just helping someone have hope again when everything seems to have been taken from them.

There’s also the challenges.  Imagine diagnosing someone with Malaria or cancer or other systemic diseases.  Some aren’t easy and straightforward which requires a lot of study, a lot of interdisciplinary discussion and just downright praying for help in figuring things out.

Being a doctor afforded me the opportunity to go overseas and help some less fortunate people with medical needs.  Life lessons are important for personal growth.  The opportunities I had to learn from people in foreign countries has been something I can’t really put a price tag on.  How can you go to the store and buy something that will truly open your eyes?  Where can you purchase a change of heart or a realistic understanding of the plight of third world societies?

I could go on.  Sure, being in the Medical field has its downside.  Insurance companies can be a nightmare and a big hassle.  The government tends to like to put its sticky hands in everything and medicine is no different.  Some people can’t afford some of the studies it takes to diagnose their problem.  Others have serious side effects to medicines or damaging results do to physician error.  Some patients are just quite demanding and expect too much (but then again, they do pay their bills for the most part). 

But to answer the question again, yes, I would do it all over again.  I can’t imagine there being another job I’d like to do except being a professional football or baseball player or a professional music star.  But I can’t do those, so the best thing is to be what God has allowed me to be.

Cows in the Road

The picture on my blog (at least for now) is a picture of four cows in the middle of the road in Colombia, South America.  We were out minding our own business, driving down the road when we came upon the cows in the road.  Now I realize that at least one of those boogers has horns and you might call it a bull, but for the sake of discussion and my blog (it is MY blog), they’re cows. 

We didn’t set out hoping to find cows in the road.  We had a destination, we had plans, we didn’t plan to stop, we knew where we were going and it didn’t involve cows.   But, alas, the cows were there and we had to stop.  Well, I guess we didn’t have to stop but we would have risked serious damage had we not stopped.  We could’ve hit the cows and wrecked.  We could have tried to avoid them, crossing in the other lane and hit a car coming the other way head-on.  But we didn’t because the natural thing to do when cows are in the road is stop … or at least slow down.  And we did.

That’s how it is in life.  Sometimes we’re headed down the road going exactly where we planned, when we planned and how we planned, living our own dreams and acting on our own desires.  We don’t plan to stop, we don’t imagine anything will really get in our way.  But inevitably, we come across cows in the road.  Suddenly, we’re faced with a decision.  The natural thing to do would be to stop or at least slow down and proceed carefully. 

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what to do when the moo-cows are in the road.  But in life, sometimes we make it harder than it should be.  Instead of slowing down or stopping, we barrel right on through, causing more damage or problems than were necessary.  We could have avoided heartache altogether.  Sometimes we don’t adequately assess the risk and think things through.  We don’t stop and we don’t even proceed carefully.  We just keep on going and if we hit the cows or hit someone else head-on, who cares.  And then we (or someone else) is left to clean up or deal with the whole mess.

Sometimes, there’s not any danger at all, but stopping or slowing down is still good for us.  It allows us to take a few moments and see what’s there.  Stopping lets us enjoy the sights, the smells.  Taking pause lets us see the horns but it also gives us a chance to appreciate the surroundings.  In the picture, there are more than cows.  It was a beautiful day.  You can tell the sun was shining because you can see the shadows thrown by the cows.  There are trees and who knows what else if we could really see everything.  It actually was a pretty sight to see in its own right. 

We stopped for the cows.  We enjoyed the moment.  We put the plans we had on hold just for a few minutes.  Nothing was lost.  Had we stayed longer, who knows what we would have seen.  Maybe some other animals?  Maybe a snake?  Maybe some birds?

So, next time you see cows in the road, the moo-cows or just the cows of life, stop for a moment.  Look at what’s going on around you.  Think about what’s going on, evaluate the risk but also enjoy the time and see what else you see.  You might be surprised at what you find.  Then proceed carefully.  And did I say, there were not four cows in the road but FIVE.

Olympics Committee Investigating Allegations of Chinese Cheating

The Beijing 2008 Olympics have been nothing short of incredible.  There have been great individual story lines and great individual achievements.  There have been inspiring stories of overcoming difficult circumstances to not only compete in, but, excel in the Olympics.  Who can argue with such amazing displays of athletic ability?

The Olympic Games, though, have not been without controversy.  Surely everyone who has paid any attention to the Olympics has heard the claims that at least one of the Chinese women’s gymnasts, He Kexin, is under the legal competitive age of 16.  In fact, numerous articles and discussions have flooded the internet and blogging circles documenting the stranglehold it’s had on our minds and desire for truth.  There have been numerous calls for the IOC to investigate the allegations and avoid playing politics, all to apparently no avail.

Until now.  Answering the cries of critics, the IOC, according to FoxNews and The Times Online, has begun an investigation into the accusations levelled against the Chinese.  Though someone somewher may not like the outcome and though it may scar the event and dampen the excitement, the IOC owes it to everyone to investigate these allegations. 

They owe it to the world.  Over a billion people have watched the Olympics and surely the majority of them knows about the complaints.  In a world where there seems to be more and more injustice, especially by people in position and power, against those who otherwise appear powerless, the international community needs to see truth and justice win out, whatever that may be and regardless of who’s involved.  They IOC cannot be seen as condoning cheating.

The IOC owes the investigation to the gymnasts who competed legally in the event.  It doesn’t matter if that includes Chinese, American, Russian, Cuban or Italian gymnasts.  They owe it to all of the participants to ensure that the competition was fair and just, that the rules were followed, and that the safety of someone’s child has been ensured .  If the Chinese, particularly, are of age, that truth deserves affirmation for the sake of those girls and their families.  If not, they will forever bear the burden of the world’s doubt.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the IOC owes it to the hosts and the people of China.  The Olympic Games have been spectacular from the torch run to the Opening Ceremony to the individual events.  But the allegations have left a black mark on the face of the Chinese people and its government who claims innocence.  The guilty are innocent until proven innocent, or so we say.  However, in many people’s eyes, China appears guilty and has already been judged and found guilty in many courts of opinion.  The IOC owes it to the Chinese people, if they are innocent, to address the issues once and for all and fully investigate it.  If they are innocent, they will be proven innocent and, after all of the dialogue and innuendo, they would deserve the exoneration. 

 

Is Barack Hussein Obama the Messiah, the Devil or Just Another Man With a Funny Sounding Name That Doesn’t Look Like All Those Other Presidents on the Dollar Bills?

So who is Barack Obama?  That’s the million dollar question a lot of people are asking.  There have been accusations, rumor and innuendo.   From snopes.com to wikipedia to bloggers and even the establishment media,  many people are taking up the question and trying to give the world an answer.  I can’t turn on the TV without hearing some talking heads debating it.  So I am wondering, too.  Who is he?  Here’s a little bit of what I found on the internet.

Louis Farrakhan, as far as I can tell, talks about him like he’s the Messiah, as seen on this YouTube video.

I’m not sure what Obama believes, but apparently he himself sounds like he might think that he’s the Devil, according to this article on the Huffington Post.  Maybe I misunderstood.  Is it just that his policies would represent the Devil’s?  Well, I do admit, I wonder if he’s right.  That is, in one sense, in this election a lot of people have said, and sometimes I wonder, if we are  voting for the lesser of two evils.

CBS News addresses the question here. 

Glassbooth.org lets you explore all of the candidates for yourself.

At least someone in McCain’s camp thinks Obama’s “the one”.  Okay, I know the video’s  supposed to be a joke.  Or is it?  Is he really “the one”?

Maybe he’s just like he suggests, a regular man who happens to look different than all those great Presidents on our money.  Oh, and did I mention he has a funny sounding name?  Whoever he is, he is charismatic, that’s for sure.  He’s definitely a much better orator than John McCain.  He talks big but I’m not sure what size stick he carries.  In any case, I think he’s just a man who talks a good game. 

To borrow a line from Bill O’Reilly, “What say you?”

(In the interest of fairness, coming soon …. Who is John McCain?)

Did the Chinese Cheat in the Olympics – After Further Review

I wrote earlier here that the U.S. (not meaning necessarily the girls themselves) looked like “sore losers” when the U.S. women’s gymnastics team lost to the Chinese girls.  As probably everyone knows, there have been accusations that at least one, if not several of the Chinese girls were below the legal age to compete in the Olympics.