Doctor as Patient

This morning I walked out of the hospital as a doctor for the last time until May (at least). For the foreseeable future, I’m a patient. A freaking cancer patient. 

I haven’t missed a shift or called in sick for work in 14 years. The only time I took off was for maternity leave in 2011, and to work in Nepal in 2009. To walk out of there feeling completely healthy but not coming back soon is a weird sensation. 

I love my job as a physician. I feel privileged to be useful, to help people, to be intellectually stimulated every day and to walk in every night knowing every shift will be different. I am never bored. I am always needed. 

Now I have to figure out how to be a patient patient. Not easy for this doctor.