Happy 1st Anniversary to Oodle Family Medicine!
I didn't plan on being a family doctor.
When I started applying for medical schools I had already done graduate work in forensics, and had assisted autopsies with the world famous Dr. Werner Spitz in Detroit. I thought I would follow in his footsteps. But pathology turned out to be isolating and repetitive work. When push came to shove, I gravitated toward people, toward primary care. Family Medicine had the best of everything: women's health, adult medicine, pediatrics. And in medical school, the connections I saw my Family Medicine mentors make with their patients sealed the deal.
After 4 years of college, 2 additional years of pre-med (because medicine was a later choice for me), 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency, my career had so little to do with connections and caring. These were jobs that focused on billing, metrics, charting, team meetings, pretty much everything BUT the patients, the people we were supposedly caring for. In medical school I had heard doctors talk about a calling to help people, but I didn't feel like I was doing anything close to that. I can pretty much guarantee you no doctor has a calling to practice corporate medicine the way it's done today.
Opening my own practice on this day, last year, set things right.
I am so happy I chose a career in family medicine! I can see grandparents, children, future moms. I have connections with my patients and my work gives me energy, instead of draining me like my hospital-affiliated job.
And while the second half of my first year of running Oodle Family Medicine had some hard times (a divorce and a move!) work always brought me back to focus, back to connections with people.
Happy Anniversary to me, and to Oodle! Here's to many more! Tell your friends, your friends friends, and their friends: Oodle is still open to new patients!
Happy doctors = happy patients!
