I recently opened my mouth to mention that I'm an occasional blogger, so a few people I know have understandably asked to see my blog. For some reason, it makes me nervous to show them all these years of posts that track my passage -- if with major gaps -- through medical school and now internship. What I see isn't always pretty, which makes me feel a little naked when I think about friends or family reading my words.
I started the blog as a place to talk about things I like or find intriguing, and also as a more personal way to keep track of other blogs and sites I follow. I named it after a song by a band I adore that has nothing to do with medicine. And, yes, it was also a play on words regarding this chronically cold girl's move from sunny California to the frozen East Coast.
In the beginning, I talked mostly about music, studying, and snippets from my personal life. Sometimes I discussed patient interactions that taught me key lessons, posted a favorite poem, or wrote about a recipe I liked. I've never posted more than sporadically, but somehow the posts added up over time.
As I came to accept that I reflect upon my profession, my posts took on a less irreverent tone. That made me want to blog less, because I really thrive when I can be both irreverent and sweet, which my patients & colleagues seem to appreciate. Life got busier with clinical rotations, busier still during residency interview season, and with internship reached a zenith of busyness I hadn't thought possible (but oh yes, it is). I posted when I could, but not as much as I wanted.
So here I am, a newly minted physician with an impossibly un-physician-like blog name and questions of whether I should keep this blog secret forever or let my friends and family in. A lot of folks find my blog through Google search (I get a remarkable number of hits by people looking for images of a Foley catheter, which is a question for another post), but it would be a lot harder for anyone looking for me to find my blog in the haystack of med-friendly blogs out there.
So here's where you, dear readers, come in. If you were me, would you let your family, friends, and/or casual acquaintances read my blog? Let me know in the comments or via coldgirlfeverblog at gmail dot com.
Thanks!
Posts
13 comments:
I say why not? Haven't seen any trash talk here. If they don't like it then screw 'em.
It's a tough decision.
There are a handful of my friends/family/ex's/classmates who read my blog and it only very slightly alters what I put in it sometimes. A lot of folks find it a great way to see what is happening in my life, and I don't mind. (Though it is weird when from time to time my blog gets quoted back to me in a social situation by someone who I have forgotten might be a reader).
I have a private blog (my original one) because it has A LOT of personal details on it, and once my readership expanded to more than 50 people it kinda freaked me out that I had so many details about friends and family on it. I update that one about once a year now.
I agree with Anon, but if you think it is going to hold you back creatively...
Ok, foley catheters are weird connection but my #1 search term that brings people to my blog: cankles. It isn't even a REAL word!
Oh and I accept your offer of future joint practice, and we can discuss becoming Non-Lesbian-Life-Partners if the whole Tobie thing doesn't work out! hahah :)
Oh, and GET BETTER SOON! How many days have you had this fever for anyway?
Maybe you ought to get some bloodwork done or something? Could you have malaria or some weird tropical illness?
P.S I went on to myyogaonline to try and see if I could send you a free 2 week trial, but they don't do that anymore! =(
Fever finally broke this morning! I'm not as familiar with the signs & sx of the various tropical illnesses, but it seemed like a classic flu-like illness. For the first couple of days if I had not been to medical school I think I would have thought I was dying, but my medical knowledge reassured me that it only felt that way.
Now I have to go to your blog to see the hoopla about cankles!
Thanks for thinking of me re: myyogaonline.com and I will definitely join! It's quite reasonable and really cuts major barriers to practice. I am an intern slug just coming to re-admit that I can't get by on mind and spirit alone.
Yay for future practice partners and an NLLP backup plan! Our practice will rock. What are you going into, again? :-)
Finally (most important) I'm keeping Elaine (and you) strong in my thoughts and prayers!
Oh, and ABB -- thanks for the blog comments. Your comments sort of mirrored those of Kevin at Flustered Grad and make me feel like I'm not being completely silly for not freely sharing the link. A couple of people I know read it, so they will have to put up with whatever I write. :-)
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. Waiting on an email from her husband today and hoping/praying/wishing that is has not spread to her lymph or other breast. I spoke with her on the phone last night and we mostly just cried. Have I mentioned my hatred for the Atlantic ocean right now?
On another note--I was really pleased to have discovered a way to do yoga at home, in fact my practice is more varied and disciplined now than ever (though I SERIOUSLY miss Bikram and the good sweat).
I am not sure what I am going into yet...I oscillate between wanting a very 'whole-health' kind of practice and getting further training in nutrition/acupuncture/yoga/exercise physiology or else being someone that is up to their elbows in blood and guts all day long.
It really is a strange dichotomy I have discovered in myself in the past 6 months...I love REALLY REALLY sick people and people that are pretty healthy already who want to be healthier.
How about a 1/2 O.R and 1/2 complimentary health healing clinic?? :) Think about it...hahahah
We'd be trail blazers!!
Ok, I just realized that I am essentially leaving my life story in your comments section. I will return to the spinal column now, in all its glory.
Now, dear, that's precisely what the comment section is for. :-) I will continue to actively pray for good news and her healthy mind, body, & spirit. Btw, the Atlantic Ocean is fully deserving of and accustomed to deep hatred, though it can't help being so wide.
The similarity I see between both pretty healthy people and really really sick people is that you can make a major, life-changing difference in each case. Surgery was actually my favorite med school rotation but I also have an insatiable desire to find any bit of health in people and encourage it to expand.
I'm definitely up for a 1/2 OR, 1/2 integrative/complimentary med practice! There is an acupuncture course for physicians offered through UCLA that I plan to take during my upcoming physiatry residency. Not the same as full acupuncture training, of course, but still helpful in my field. Physiatry lends itself to a more whole-person approach as there is a driving need to find what works for each patient, especially if standard treatment approaches have failed.
Now we may need to recruit a 3rd partner for our basic internal medicine needs as I'm doing just the one year and as much as I love to read and think about medicine, I would soon gough my eyes with spoons if I had to practice as a primary care internist. May God bless those who do it.
I'm going to sign of for MYO tonight! I will let you know how I do.
I think we'll have to call our clinic "Paradox Clinic" or something.
You're a Cold Fever and I'm an Albino Blackbear!
(cue UFO music)
OK so you are going into physiatry!?
Wow! I wish I could pick your brain about it, that is one (of many) specialties I know so little about yet am intrigued...
"Surgery was actually my favorite med school rotation but I also have an insatiable desire to find any bit of health in people and encourage it to expand."
You have put into words very eloquently what I have tried to explain to so many people.
Separated at birth I tell ya...separated at birth!!!
ABB, I like the way you think! Paradox Center for Health and Wellness has a nicer ring than Dichotomous Doctors, doesn't it?
We can talk shop about physiatry any day you like. I like that it's a specialty that helps injured people to regain lost function (or find new ways to function) and hangs its hat on improving quality of life.
In addition to physiatrists generally being very cool and happy people, I truly love the neuromusculoskeletal system. So if you're studying the spine, autonomic system, & peripheral nerves right now, may I suggest that in a way it is one of the backbones of all medicine! :-)
Yes, I completely agree that we were separated at birth! I may be a bit older in years, but in spirit we're both as young and as old as we need to be. :-)
Oh, I enlisted my good friend Jake (one of the *few* people I know who reads my blog!) in the mission to pray for Elaine. He is well connected with the Catholic prayer chain and he happily agreed to help!
My friends and family know about my blog; I think it keeps me honest! It forces me to write something I'd be willing to defend in person.
The downside is that I can't write another House Of God, because my co-residents would know I was trash-talking them...
Nice back pun--hahahah! Nerd. :-)
I like the sounds of this physiatry of which you speak. And, extra cool that you'll be doing some acupuncture!
Have you heard of this complimentary med program at U of Phoenix? I've been stalking the web site for about 5 years now...
Thank you again for the prayer net. Really appreciate it. I sent Elaine the screen shot of where my readers come from, telling her about the positive vibes/prayers being sent up from all those places. She was so delighted.
Older? Really? I am no spring chicken either...31 now! Yes. 31 and still accumulating student debt (not even paying it off yet!) [Insert fist pump and exclamation of 'yesssssssssss'!]
Zac, you're right that it keeps you accountable. I would definitely let my friends and family read your blog! :-) You can always write HoG2 anonymously. Add a 'k' to the end of your name and we'll never know who you really are. ;-)
ABB, yes, you caught me being a nerd...the real challenge is to catch me NOT being one!
I haven't heard of the CAM program at U of Phoenix but Dr. Weil started one for physicians/NPs/PAs at the University of Arizona at Tucson (http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/education/fellowship/).
I'm 32 going on the next one soon! It's good to look young, isn't it? Yes, the debt is terrible but I truly can't imagine doing anything different for work. We're in a rare position to learn people's most intimate stories and help them to improve their own quality of life. I also love that I get to learn tons of fascinating things about medicine and the body and apply them in real life! I read about whatever interests me, no matter how obscure, and somehow it always seems to come in handy for at least one patient encounter.
Now, balance is a challenge, but not with myyogaonline.com. I just joined, thank you! Will let you know how it goes. Still meditating every day and life feels good.
Now get back to studying the spine! :-)
Post a Comment