All in Doctorly Musings
Instagram goes crazy this time of year with everyone's Best Nine. You haven't heard of it? It's the nine most 'liked' pictures you've posted over the year.
And in this quiet morning (it's the day before Christmas as I write this, and, no, I'm still not ready), I started thinking about a different 'Best Nine'. What am I proud of this year?
Our house isn’t ready for Christmas. My stack of cards, unaddressed, is still sitting there. We don’t have our tree up yet because we’ve been sick. Our stockings aren’t hung by the chimney with care. (Though Mr. Bookworm has taken our Christmas boxes down from the attic.) And though we have lots of presents, none of them are wrapped. There is no guarantee of any of those things actually getting done this weekend either—not with us being sick. And that’s okay.
The only thing that MUST get done today is the movies. Because we’re off to see The Last Jedi today.
Every since Mini Me was little, we've talked about different types of families. We've talked about families with just one parent, with two parents that are boys or girls or one of each, and with different households.
On the way home from our Thanksgiving celebration with the family, I realized that we forgot to say what we are thankful for. Traditionally we write what we are thankful for anonymously and then place them all in a bag. The gratitude notes are then read out loud.
Since we forgot, the four of us stated our thank yous in the car.
Celebrating the 5 year book anniversary of Special Delivery:
What's Special Delivery? It's a children's book that I wrote when Mini Me was two years old and I was pregnant with Macy, my daughter who lived only briefly. One sleepless night I couldn't get these words out of my head as we were figuring out how to tell Mini Me that her sister was likely going to die.
Eventually, for Macy's funeral, we had five books printed at a local shop. And then, in 2012, we received a grant from Sappi Ideas That Matter to have the book published so that we could distribute them to other families, free of cost.
Common Welsh Green Dragon from Harry Potter, Tsunami Dragon from Wings of Fire, and Mother of Dragons, not really from Game of Thrones :D
On Fridays on my way to work, I see the same man walking toward the cemetery with a huge bunch of flowers. I only see him if I go to work after dropping off the girls, but like clockwork, he is there with his fisherman's vest on, and that bright bundle of flowers. Every time I see him, I can't help but smile. But it's a bittersweet smile.
There are many things I could admire about Lola, especially today on what would have been her 96th birthday. I could admire the fact that she had a PhD, at a time when attaining a higher education for a female could not have been easy. I could admire the way she traveled the world with my Lolo, and then continued to do so years after he passed away. She lived for 17 years after him, and I can only imagine her grief. Even now, for me, she has been gone for 16 years and I miss her every single day.
What I choose to remember most and admire the most about my Lola is her generous spirit.
True fact: minus one week of not-being-broken-up (maybe), Mr. Bookworm and I have been together since we were dating. And while I have my faults, I like to think that Mr. Bookworm has helped me become a better person.
So don't judge (too much) when I tell you the story of how ice cream saved my marriage. Or rather, how ice cream saved my wedding to Mr. Bookworm.
I've been reading a lot on social media and online about what happens when we defund Planned Parenthood, and what the repercussions of the new healthcare act will have on underserved populations. I won't pretend to be a journalist and I won't pretend that I understand all the minutiae of what is going on. But let me tell you what defunding Planned Parenthood means to me as a pediatrician.
In my lifetime, I've had to tell two separate twelve-year-old girls that they were pregnant. Two. One when I was a resident one when I was an attending.
For both, I don't know the outcome.
Dr. Bookworm discusses why it's okay to show affection to your kids. Yes, even on social media.
Dr. Bookworm discusses the learning curve of reading and Little Lion's experience.
Dr. Bookworm discusses the legacy that a physician leaves behind in the wake of her unexpected death.
What happens when hospitals are demolished? Where do the stories of the ones who have lived and died there go?
Dr. Bookworm muses on 'Doctor Burnout' and what the gift of ME time can do to lessen a physician's load.
Dr. Bookworm talks about visiting her daughter at the cemetery and certain trends that she's noticed.
"My mommy guilt comes in the form of cemetery visits. "
Dr. Bookworm discusses National Poetry Month and some of her favorite poems. She also shares a few (unedited) poems.
On Doctors' Day, Dr. Bookworm shares what draws her to both medicine and writing together.
Dr. Bookworm discusses the death of children's book writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and also Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air.
