Friday, Friday. No Grand Plans. Just Be A Doctor, Save the Earth and Be Happy.
July 23, 2021
by drplasticpicker
I really need to knock out the bags this weekend. I’m at 12 bags I think, so hopefully will do solo beach cleanups Saturday and Sunday. Today is a full week coffee-free mornings! My wake-time has shifted later so I’m up at 530 rather than 4am. I think this is healthier. My sleep is deeper and I’m going to bed earlier. My muscles are achy at night though which was an unexpected withdrawal symptom. This makes sense because when I was running half marathons, I fueled myself on coffee. I would drink one before the races and on long-run days would need more. This is not sustainable nor healthy. I’ve heard of older runners former pediatricians who needed knee replacements early on because they kept on running more than they should have. After my myalgias resolve, I’ll restart running again but maybe just 2-3 times a week 3 miles or so. Right now I’m working on getting through the days without coffee, and that is it. Things feel a peaceful sort of good. Yesterday I ate tomatoes, argula salad (thank you Dr. Dear Friend!), vegetarian burrito, lots of plums (thank you dear patient family), and a banana. I think it was a plant-forward type of day!!! I did eat other foods but those were the plants I ate.
Otherwise the delta variant has kind of thrown a wrench in the plans of the world. We had to cancel our son’s trip to Michigan to visit friends for various reasons. It was not safe and we’ll get a partial refund on two plane tickets. We have a trip planned for Montana, but even that I’m not sure. We’ve been healthy and careful and everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, but we have my nephew and niece that were planning on going and I think it may not be safe for them. I need to talk to my sister. The safe thing will be to drive to Oregon to visit our farm if the dellta variant surges! I’ve pretty much invited everyone to the farm. No one can really stay there yet because it’s getting set up, but the idea of the Oregon farm is all there to make us all happy.
Now that I’ve mentally moved on from micromanaging appointments and per diem management, my mental health continues to improve quite a bit. The funny thing is the amount of work I’m able to do actually is about the same if not more. But having that mental load gone is really good. I continued to sign-out the responsibilities to my fellow Assistant Boss and I continued to reiterate “No Take-Backs.” I felt like I was a third-grader and it was very fun. They’ll do fine. I’m not letting things fall apart at all. Just sharing the burden.
Otherwise we are grateful in our house this week. Our son did well on his AP Physics exam between a passing and a perfect which is excellent, especially considering we are in the middle still of a historic pandemic and over 600,000 Americans died. It’s good to put all of life in perspective. He is such a good son, and enjoying Advanced Chemistry this summer more than Physics. Maybe he will be a doctor? He told the HMO optometrist that he was considering psychiatry.
And it’s Friday and we have a new per diem physician working today and we were able to secure the health connect trainer person which is great. I really thank our secretary for getting this done. I have a full day of clinic and look forawrd to seeing my friends at work, and seeing my patients. I hope my little brother comes over for dinner today. Immersed in family, meaningful work, and doing climate projects here and there. We joined the rewild Mission Bay coalition and I have a phone meeting set up with them on Tuesday hopefully. And this weekend I’ll try to really get headway on the AirKeepers program and learn about it and see where we can find money for this program. Oh, and I have to update the San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air website with all our recent climate wins.
I have no grander motive then being a doctor, a mother and wife, save the earth and try to be happy. That is all.