Well, I've just been exhausted by this year. Seriously bone crunching exhaustion. Medicine is hard work. Whoever thinks it's all glamour and gliding doesn't know shit. It is backbreaking and long hours on your feet, long hours being smooth and suave, and doubly difficult if you're having a bad day and faking it. Arthritis is developing and I have a new found respect for the elderly. Ice packs, anti-inflammatories and stretching through yoga are my new saviors.
I really hope the old garbage from 2011--the uncertainties, the corruption, the inconsistencies---go away. I'm ready for a positive uplift. I want goodness and gladness and seriousness. It's a good time, like the Roman Janus of old--half looking back, half looking ahead--to examine where you've been and where you want to go.
Here's to an abundance of health and prosperity for all in 2012!! Cin-Cin!!
Clear Stream
Friday, December 30, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Groundhog Day every end of year
http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Payroll-Tax-Medicare-Cuts/2011/12/22/id/421833
Well, once again, they hung the guillotine over our necks and they averted a nearly 30% pay cut for those of us in the trenches doing the work.
This charade happens every year. I am completely sick and tired of this annual ritual. CMS halts the processing of Medicare payments for the first 14 days of every January to give Congress "time to find ways to avoid the pay cut". CMS knows there would be a massive walk-out/revolt by doctors if the cuts came through. We still don't know what the fee schedule for 2012 will be, nor what the deductible will be. They'll figure it out well into 2012, with all of us scrambling to program billing software with the new fee schedules well into the new year. Their (Congress') incompetence, contempt for the citizen, lack of knowledge of what it's like to be working in America today....(grumble grumble) GGGRRRRRRRRRR.
In a bizarre way, I actually want the cuts to happen. It would force their hand to restructure a bankrupt government entitlement with ever increasing Medusa-like growth.
Well, once again, they hung the guillotine over our necks and they averted a nearly 30% pay cut for those of us in the trenches doing the work.
This charade happens every year. I am completely sick and tired of this annual ritual. CMS halts the processing of Medicare payments for the first 14 days of every January to give Congress "time to find ways to avoid the pay cut". CMS knows there would be a massive walk-out/revolt by doctors if the cuts came through. We still don't know what the fee schedule for 2012 will be, nor what the deductible will be. They'll figure it out well into 2012, with all of us scrambling to program billing software with the new fee schedules well into the new year. Their (Congress') incompetence, contempt for the citizen, lack of knowledge of what it's like to be working in America today....(grumble grumble) GGGRRRRRRRRRR.
In a bizarre way, I actually want the cuts to happen. It would force their hand to restructure a bankrupt government entitlement with ever increasing Medusa-like growth.
Seasonal Nostalgia
Like many people this time of year, I find myself a little sad thinking of my childhood Christmases. The dreaming of Santa Claus arriving in the night--Ma, how he does he get into our apartment if we have no chimney? The family gatherings, and missing those who aren't with us any longer. The snow and the dark days ( I grew up in NJ). Now that I'm in a warmer climate and have real world, adult pressures, the season can be fraught with have-to-dos and responsibilities. I still look for Santa and believe he's around. It's easy to feel that you're missing that "magic" in all the sappy commercials this time of year.
I was reminded of a simple gesture by a patient's daughter. My patient passed away a few weeks ago, and his devoted daughter always came with him to his appointments. She came to bring me a thank-you card in the midst of her grief, thanking me for the support and the help I had given her father, and how he absolutely trusted what I thought. It brought a knot to my chest and I had to keep it cool in the middle of a busy clinic morning. Her gratitude reminded me what's most important for us to remember at all times--being kind, mindful of the golden rule, and just aiming for your best everyday, despite the headwinds!!!
In an earlier post I talked about bikram yoga, how deadly hot it was and how it wasn't for me. I truly love yoga and I persisted, I found a studio that offers "power yoga" in a room heated to 85 degrees, so you sweat but don't die. The studio is clean, smells good, has big windows facing a garden courtyard with lots of open space around it. I really feel that your surroundings impact your practice, your work, your life.
I was sold. I've been attending "power vinyasa" classes, a faster paced sequence of challenging poses in a heated room for 60-90 minutes, and it's wonderful. I really like how we begin and end each class with a long powerful "OM". There is a wisdom to this ancient practice of fitness, and I am much more flexible, limber, stronger after a few weeks. I can already do a partial tripod headstand! OK so my legs aren't straight and I can only hold it for 5 seconds, but it's a victory at age 43. Physical fitness is so important, it sets the pace for everything. Growing old, obese, weak, winded, and full of elevated lipids and diabetes and high blood pressure, NOT for me. I wish my peers and patients would listen to me when I suggest this. They are sooo behind the times, they think I'm crazy when I push for exercise, yoga, biking, swimming, etc.
Have yourselves a Merry Christmas and a healthful new Year!!!
I was reminded of a simple gesture by a patient's daughter. My patient passed away a few weeks ago, and his devoted daughter always came with him to his appointments. She came to bring me a thank-you card in the midst of her grief, thanking me for the support and the help I had given her father, and how he absolutely trusted what I thought. It brought a knot to my chest and I had to keep it cool in the middle of a busy clinic morning. Her gratitude reminded me what's most important for us to remember at all times--being kind, mindful of the golden rule, and just aiming for your best everyday, despite the headwinds!!!
In an earlier post I talked about bikram yoga, how deadly hot it was and how it wasn't for me. I truly love yoga and I persisted, I found a studio that offers "power yoga" in a room heated to 85 degrees, so you sweat but don't die. The studio is clean, smells good, has big windows facing a garden courtyard with lots of open space around it. I really feel that your surroundings impact your practice, your work, your life.
I was sold. I've been attending "power vinyasa" classes, a faster paced sequence of challenging poses in a heated room for 60-90 minutes, and it's wonderful. I really like how we begin and end each class with a long powerful "OM". There is a wisdom to this ancient practice of fitness, and I am much more flexible, limber, stronger after a few weeks. I can already do a partial tripod headstand! OK so my legs aren't straight and I can only hold it for 5 seconds, but it's a victory at age 43. Physical fitness is so important, it sets the pace for everything. Growing old, obese, weak, winded, and full of elevated lipids and diabetes and high blood pressure, NOT for me. I wish my peers and patients would listen to me when I suggest this. They are sooo behind the times, they think I'm crazy when I push for exercise, yoga, biking, swimming, etc.
Have yourselves a Merry Christmas and a healthful new Year!!!
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