I’m shivering under a scalding shower, trying to fight the fever with fire. The pyrexic mind is a toxic place, an environment that should never be trusted. But I only know this when my temperature is below 100 degrees. As water pours onto my head and neck, I ruminate on the prospects of my memoir, … Continue reading Newsletter #140: Fighting the Fevers with Fire
Tag: leaving medicine
Newsletter #139: Running Hills
To run in Asheville was to run hills. As my neighbor, a cyclist, put it, “I can’t pedal down my driveway without starting a 1000-foot climb.” A plainsmen by birth, I knew the wind, but I knew no incline. Slowly, I adapted, developing a collection of hill-conquering strategies, most of which centered around not looking … Continue reading Newsletter #139: Running Hills
Newsletter #137: One Fir’s Dance with Chance
Six a.m. My dad’s headlights shine onto my living room’s walls. I down my coffee, lock the doors, and snag my luggage. We’re ski-tripping to Colorado and should be there by late-afternoon, but only if the conditions hold. As the garage door rolls up, I see the driveway’s dusted white. Could get nasty on I-70. … Continue reading Newsletter #137: One Fir’s Dance with Chance
Newsletter #136: High-Stakes Barefoot Poker
For a year in California, I rented a casita in a family’s backyard. Upsides: fifty-foot pine tree right outside my door, listening to the kids practice piano, only five minutes from the hospital. Downsides: minimal privacy, listening to the kids practice piano, only five minutes from the hospital. As a habit, one I still practice … Continue reading Newsletter #136: High-Stakes Barefoot Poker
Newsletter #131: Too Happy to Be a Doctor
The smell is clinical and familiar. Latex, Purel, steel. Dermatomal maps hang on the wall, to what end, I’m unsure. Maybe the anatomical charts make patients feel better. Maybe they make the doctors feel better, reminding them of their training. Or, more likely, something has to hang on the wall and the maps were cheaper than Thomas … Continue reading Newsletter #131: Too Happy to Be a Doctor
Newsletter #129: How Many Motivational Quotes Does It Take?
In the background beyond my laptop, taped and pinned to my office’s wall, are a cadre of motivational quotes. Some in black ink. Some in blue. Some old. Some new. Half from Sam Presti. I rotate them weekly in a starting lineup, switching on mood, season, task, etc. When a quarterback goes to business school, … Continue reading Newsletter #129: How Many Motivational Quotes Does It Take?
Newsletter #127: The Long Sought Failure
"Hey," Keti peaked her head inside my office. "You want to take a walk?" I did not want to take a walk. Minutes earlier, the truth had descended into my email with swift brutality. I'd been spazzing refresh for weeks—irresponsibly, repetitively, nonsensically—waiting for word on my application to a local Masters of Fine Arts in … Continue reading Newsletter #127: The Long Sought Failure
Newsletter #124: Extreme Phone Makeover, Existential Edition
Cocaine or opiates—which one, I cannot recall—dripped by bottle into the cage. Alone, this rat lived in a plastic box with straw bedding, dry food, a water bowl, and drugs. Within hours, the rat began hammering the drug drip like I siphon Diet Lemonade from Chick-fil-A. Shamelessly. Too often. Now addicted, the rat became despondent … Continue reading Newsletter #124: Extreme Phone Makeover, Existential Edition
Newsletter #121: The ROI of Our Past
"You poor thing," said my occupational therapist, a woman in her sixties. Dark brown hair. No makeup. Naturally vibrant. "You didn't even get to use all those years of school, all that investment of time and money?" She kept cutting straps for my splint, shaking her head. I'd just shared my life story because I … Continue reading Newsletter #121: The ROI of Our Past
Newsletter #116: Swings at Eternity
"Rhyne! Rhyne!" Of the conceivable pronunciations of my four-letter name, this is my favorite. My neighbor Tamara, more Appalachian than "Wagon Wheel" and sweeter than Western Carolina Ice Tea, waived me over from the edge of her above-ground pool. Having just finished my workday in the shop, I walked her direction across our shared greenbelt. … Continue reading Newsletter #116: Swings at Eternity
