Writer's Block

This is an interesting blog post idea, I know, but I have been experiencing some serious writer's block recently and I hoping to baby step my way out of it.  Currently on my To-Do list I have several pieces to write, some past deadline, some in collaboration with heavy hitters in my field, and some I just find fascinating.  However, between switching from Residency to "real" life, with its attendant risks, intervening vacations, rewards and change of pace; having homework again in the form of board studying sucking up my creative time; and attempting to return my body to a state of pre-residency vitality, has really sapped my ability to create written words.

There is another possibility which is far more terrifying to me.  I am concerned that in my transition to my new careers, both inpatient nocturnist work and outpatient entrepreneurship/start-up work with Iora Health, has made me too happy.  I am actually quite content with my work, excited to do it every day, with a firm belief in both what I am doing in the short term, and its possibility for long term positive effects.  In short, I have lost the strong emotional trigger in the form of frustration that led to so much previous writing.

I hope that I can mature a little and find a new muse which allows me to write.  I am hoping that my enthusiasm for a better world, separated from my frustration from living in the current world, will be enough to keep me writing.  Because I do NOT want to have to go through residency again just to stay in the game!

Resident Night Perks

I received this in the mail unexpectedly from the "Drew Crew" a group of very motivated high school students from around the country who traveled up to Framingham to learn about becoming a physician.  Through National Youth Leadership Forum's Resident Night Program, I was given the opportunity to talk with them for 90 minutes or so.

Drew Crew- you are the best!

Day 3 on the Juice Fast

"Hey Andrew, you want to go to Birch Creek on a Juice Fast with me?" started a conversation with may dad a few weeks ago. It is now day 3 without solid food and about 4 hours of daily exercise. The most surprising thing, I am not hungry. Each day begins with a Barley drink, five mile "walk" (to the top of some high point in the catskills), breakfast juice (two for men!), 2 hours of exercise with a protein smoothie in between, a lunch juice, more exercise and a lecture, a cup of bouillon, then a dinner juice. The even more surprising thing, is that I cannot stop thing about Corned beef. All the foods in the world I am not eating, and it is the salted cured meats that my brain desires.... Watch out Michael's, here I come!