The couple of weeks I've had some free time. So I watched the 2nd season of Sopranos (terrific) and read some. After finishing Hostile Takeover and a bunch of magazines, I read Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains.
It's a fantastic book with great prose and an in depth study into a fascinating character. Paul Farmer is a Harvard MD who has battled TB in Haiti and Peru for most of his life. He is brilliant and willing to endure a lifestyle most people would call torture, but he's been very effective.
It has added even more appeal to running my own rural practice. Becky and I are now seriously considering staying in Phoenix for residency then heading to the Northwest after Connor graduates from High School. If she gets a promotion as has been discussed it will be even more appealing. I'll have one extra year to start practicing after residency or to finish a fellowship. Scottsdale Healthcare seems to have the best program, but I can't rotate there until 4th year. So for now, I'm putting out feelers and doing as much research as I can online.
The biggest obstacle is that Colton, Mr. Social, would have to move from a suburban High School before Junior year to a rural one. He wouldn't have his brother around, and I'd be pretty busy trying to start my practice or get a handle on one I purchase.
To hedge my bets, I'd like to learn procedures that are useful in both suburban and rural areas like OMM and Derm. GI and OB stuff are probably more suited to rural areas due to insurance and malpractice risk. Well plenty of time to make those decisions. But not too soon to plan my last elective rotation of this year and start thinking of my MSIV schedule. In fact, I should check how soon I can schedule an audition rotation at Scottsdale Healthcare.
The two most inspirational medical books I've read are outstanding character studies about two of the most obsessed physicians ever. Robert Mee, a pediatric thoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and Paul Farmer, an infectious disease IM physician at Harvard and Haiti. It's good for us students to have some heroes.