Serve Your Community There are so many opportunities to serve and community organizations need people as capable as you. The AMA Alliance is a wonderful organization that can help you connect with other medical spouses and find opportunities to serve in the community. It is an arm of the American Medical Association (AMA) and is specifically designed for…
Loss can be so difficult for children of all ages. They often don’t have the language to express their grief or may not have the understanding to process what has happened. Many children are afraid they will forget the person who has died or gone away. Rituals and mementos are powerful healing agents. That is…
Three years ago last month some of our dear friends, Andrea and Tyler Gasser, lost their four month old little boy, Beckett. She went upstairs to her bedroom to wake him up from a nap only to find him unconscious. Days in the pediatric ICU did not revive him. I remember when I received the…
As a parent, I try really hard to say “Yes” as much as I can, but this summer, I have found myself saying “No” more than I would like. This week I had to do something to break that cycle. One of our biggest challenges this summer is the excessive asking for screen time. It…
The other day I was letting my three-year old plan on the iPad next to me in the office. I looked down and saw he was watching a little cartoon that had a naked female statue. Shocked (okay, horrified), I took the iPad away and tried to figure out how something like that got past…
How do you know when sibling teasing becomes too much? There can be a fine line between playful banter and nasty comments. Siblings are close enough to know your quirks, your fears and your weaknesses — the good, the bad and the ugly. For someone in such a trusted role to say hurtful things can…
It’s July…Happy New Year! I know, most people celebrate New Years in January, but for some of us, July 1st is the start of the “new year.” See, I’m married to a doctor and my husband has been in training for the past 11 years…with two more to go. Four years of medical school, five years of general surgery…
Believe that medical marriages work – even if the chosen path is surgery. Surviving residency with your marriage intact is possible! I wish someone had told me that. Okay, people did tell me that, but only people who didn’t really know. “Oh, it will be fine. Just think about how great it will be when he is…
Medical marriages, like military marriages, have unique challenges that are specific to this profession. Don’t expect other people to understand. They can’t. Don’t expect your family or your friends in other professions to understand what a struggle surviving residency really is. Understanding someone else’s experience is really difficult unless you have lived it. You and…
Time together is worth more than anything. Guard it, protect it, and buy it when possible. Because people did not understand Aaron’s schedule, surviving residency meant we had to become very protective of the time he was home. When he walked in the door, I always hung up the phone. If he was going to be home, I…
Go out on a weekly date and get away alone together for as long as possible once a year. Time alone together is crucial! When we started residency, we had two small children. By the time we were finished, seven years later, we had four. Making date nights and getaways a priority was hard, but…
