Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Family Practice routine

Life is pretty comfortable in this rotation. I work my hours, do a little reading at lunch and/or the evening. I go in an interview patients. Then I either discuss diagnosis and treatment (FP days) or start team manipulation (OMM days) with Dr. Will. I'm getting decent at charting and scripting and my OMM skills are definitely improving.

The rural family guy life is looking more and more attractive. It's not as prestigious or high paying as the more specialized or academic practices. But the freedom, hours, lifestyle and potential for procedures (especially in a rural town) sure sound better than struggling to get a competitive residency in some grimy East Coast town, working long hours for many years, then moving the family again to some expensive West Coast city where even a Doc's salary barely pays the mortgage. And then you have to deal with bureaucrats in the hospital or soap operas in partnerships.

It's probably time to dive into FP residency research. I also need to install Google Maps and do some fly-bys of Northwest rural areas and start to get some ideas of where the family would be happy.

Oh, the weekend was fun. Saturday I mowed, edged, pooper-scooped and blew the yard in 110 degree heat. After collapsing I relaxed most of the day until it was time to go see the Diamondbacks get spanked by the Astros (9-3). Clemens is still dangerous. It was an ok date night, but the sushi at Ra was horrible. We heard reviews that it was the best in Phoenix, but I thought it was slightly better than Costco!

Sunday we had Tucker and his family over for some 'real' salmon; King salmon caught wild. It was delicious - the tastiest fish in the world IMHO. And a far cry from the over-priced, dyed, farm salmon advertised as 'top shelf Atlantic salmon'. Yuck. Tucker and I also had some time to discuss residencies and practices in the Northwest. It was great to see his family, have great food and wine and then knock around ideas about the next five or so years with a fellow student.