The study of medicine continues to intrigue me. One of my clients is a neurologist and he runs a website called SmartKit designed to ‘work your mind.’

His posts are always intriguing, interesting, challenging, or on occasion, disgusting (look for a post about milk - warning, you won’t be able to drink the stuff afterwards). Generally, the posts are about brain puzzles and IQ tests, but every now and then, he posts his experiences as a neurologist. One I found particularly interesting was the ‘Locked In Syndrome‘.

Another story I heard on the news last night, was three children have died due to the flu virus, here in MN. Most of us have been de-sensitized to the media - we hear the stories, thank God that hasn’t happened to us, and go on with our lives. When I hear or read stories like these, I wish I could do something to help them, and that is when I start thinking all over again about pursuing a medical degree.

After the story came on last night, I mentioned to Blake how that has to be so hard to lose a child, especially to something as common as the flu, and especially when there are vaccines out there, and it could have been prevented. Blake’s response was, “Well, if you become a doctor, what will you do when you lose a patient?”

I had talked to my mom about this same subject before, and my immediate reaction was, “Well, I wouldn’t be a surgeon, so my patients wouldn’t die.” And then I realize, people don’t just die in surgery. My mom then proceeded to tell me a story about my cousin’s grandma. Although my mom was a little fuzzy on the details, the jist of the story is she lost three children (my uncle’s siblings) - a 3-year-old and two infants. When asked, she would say, “It was harder to lose the infants because I never got to learn the personality or be with the infants like I was with the 3-year-old”

I guess that’s how doctors, and people in general, have to look at loss in their profession and lives. Be thankful that you were able to have the person in your life for however long they’re around and you were able to make some sort of impact on them. What kind of impact is entirely up to you.