Bright stars...
...through the perilous fight
Celebrate You
Hello, Doctor. Happy new year.
Whether you’re a PGY-1 or a PGY-50, July marks an anniversary. You sally forth with the accomplishments of the past year under your belt and the ambitions of a spectacular future ahead.
As you reflect on your milestones, what memories and hopes do you have? Any moments of insight, memorable encounters, or lessons to share?
Seize the moment and the stories. Express. Influence. Inspire.
If you need some assistance, I’m happy to help you achieve your writing goals.
In This Issue
The Summer Spectacular
On the Launch Pad
Pressing On
Submit in Writing
Getting Acquainted
Hot Take
The Summer Spectacular
Writing & Storytelling in Healthcare, a virtual writing conference for healthcare professionals, is just around the corner on Sunday, August 3.
Hear words of wisdom from doctors who write. Learn from their insight and experiences. Anthologies and essays are the theme this time! Our special guests are Dr. Sasha Yakhkind and Dr. Jeffrey Millstein. You don’t want to miss their tips and advice for cultivating your best words.
Highlight: get feedback on your 1,000-word submission! Past participants have really enjoyed this component.
Click here to learn more: https://www.ironedwordsproductions.com/writing-storytelling-in-healthcare Just a few spots left, so sign up ASAP!
On the Launch Pad
The new ezine is here! DocWriteRx™ debuts on July 9. Watch for it in your inbox.
The inaugural issue features writing from Dr. Chuck Joy, a psychiatrist and poet.
Subscribe for full access and you won’t miss a word.
Pressing On
This month in the primer, more on narrative medicine with Part II: Key Concepts.
Subscribe for full access to Writing & Storytelling in Healthcare: the Primer.
Submit in Writing
Your words could appear in an upcoming issue of DocWriteRx™! Write 100-500 words on one of the following topics:
How do you manage your time effectively?
Describe an instance when alternative and complimentary medicine played a role in a case.
How do you engage with patients who are angry or frustrated?
You’re welcome to try difference writing forms: memoir, fiction, song lyrics, etc. Stretch your creativity.
Upon publication, the author will receive a free premium subscription of Healing Ink™ for one year, an $80 value. That includes all paywalled material and future bonuses in that year.
Click on the button below to submit.
Getting Acquainted
Right after finishing my neurology residency, my fiancé and I moved to the Virginia Tidewater. He took a private practice position after finishing his fellowship training in infectious diseases. For me, however, there were no suitable opportunities.
In a way, it was a relief. We had a wedding. I had board exams. Starting a new job on top of that would have been sadism.
But being unemployed sucked. Our mid-October wedding depleated all of our resources. His birthday was a week before our nuptials. Down to my last $20, I bought him a $12 umbrella at the mall. I came back to my car and cried.
I ended up working at the mall’s department store for the holidays just to earn some income.
Shortly thereafter, I became aware of an opening at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. The neurophysiology fellowship program sought applicants for the academic year starting in July. I got accepted, and it became the best year of my training era.
There were three of us in the fellowship class:
me, a UPMC residency alum
Carl, a newly minted neurologist originally from Pittsburgh who did residency at Georgetown where I had spent a year (so we had a lot in common)
Tahir, a Pakistani Canadian PM&R doc
We became the three musketeers, doing everything together — clinics, coffee didactics, even get togethers outside of work.
Along with our clinical duties, the fellows were charged with presenting lunchtime lectures to the residents. I loved this! I looked forward to to giving talks on everything from generalized seizure disorders to ALS to the brachial plexus.
Through our interactions with the residents, they gravitated toward us fellows. They sensed an energy and synergy between three of us that they wanted, too.
The downside — my hour commute each way on I-64 between Newport News and Richmond. But even that minor inconvenience became part of my fellowship year’s mystique. Luckily, gas cost less than a dollar a gallon at that time. An amazing alignment of stars.
At June graduation, Carl, Tahir, and I went our separate ways. My husband and I were Pittsburgh bound, Carl headed for the DC suburbs, and Tahir, western Canada. In earnest, we vowed to stay friends forever. In that moment, in my youthful naïveté, I believed we would.
As life unfolded, family demands, career paths, and disparate geography put us on diverging trajectories, and we fell out of touch. While social media reconnected us, friendship isn’t quite the same through brief, sporadic posts.
Even though things have changed, I hold a special place in my heart for Carl and Tahir and that special year together a quarter century ago. I’ve come to cherish the harmony of that time and the rare, elusive magic that enveloped us.
Hot Take
“Everything magical happens in July.”
See you next month for the next dose of Healing Ink™.
Check out our sister publication on Substack, Hot Off the Iron.
— Maria Simbra, MD, MA, MPH, Director and Principal of Ironed Words Productions, LLC