Twenty Years

Happy Anniversary to me! Twenty years ago today, I hung out my solo shingle.

Last year, I forgot to post anything about it. Two years ago, I wrote about it here. Much has happened in the last two years, yet much has remained the same. Happily, my family is still all well and happy. Sadly, my income hasn't budged.

Twenty years ago, I saw three patients that first day. Today I begin the day with 16 patient visits scheduled, plus 27 others for flu shots.

I'm still blogging. I'm not checking the site meter nearly as compulsively as I once did; this is a good thing. I now have a laptop on my desk at work, though, so I check Facebook several times a day; this is probably not such a good thing.

I'm still writing; and now I'm published. I even have an agent, so I know that as I continue writing, there's at least one person who doesn't think my stuff sucks. This is an extraordinarily exciting time in my life, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this writing thing develops as an ancillary career.

But now as then, what I look forward to most is the people. They're usually called patients, but what they really are is people who have done me the tremendous honor of allowing me into their lives at their most vulnerable; the best and worst moments of their lives; the beginnings, the endings, and everything in between. When I think of twenty years in practice, I don't think about the three locations, the comings and goings of assorted staffers, or even the hospital staff and committee meetings. I remember the patients; my patients; my friends. Now as then, they are the reason I do what I do, and why I love what I do. Now as then, I thank you all.

Me and the Rolling Peke,
both with fresh haircuts