Alternate Universe Practices (Funsies only)

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RustedFox

RustedFox

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I daydream a lot. Can't help it.

I really like my existing job, location, life. I really, really do. All this recent talk about job satisfaction and such really has me reflecting and happy.

- but sometimes I think:

"What if things were different? If ______ never happened, where would I end up wanting to work, and why ?"

I'll share my answer(s) and reasons for them later. I wanted to get this down in words before I pass the heck out. I'm exhausted, and might not remember this tomorrow if I don't get it down.
 
Oh, I've thought about that a lot.

What if...
what if I'd matched somewhere else? That's a huge question. I mean, I really like my group and I love Florida now, but I don't think it's the sort of place I would have chosen, if I'd had a choice in the matter.

what if I'd actually divorced my ex when I'd first contemplated it, instead of hanging around trying to make it work for another 7 years? (Yeah, that's sort of a big one, but it's water under the bridge now)

what if I hadn't taken that fateful animal lab in college that made me consider medicine in the first place?

Sort of like those questions? We make decisions every day, some of which are trivial, some of which aren't. (Ahem, for you Super Nerds, I reference the Doctor Who classic, "Turn Left," where a simple decision has universe-wide ramifications)
 
The what ifs haunt all of us. I am Fringe man myself. Liked Who too. I would make out with Michio Kaku and maybe hold hands with Brian Greene.
 
Sorry for the loosely-framed hypothetical; like I said - I was dead-tired and just wanted to "get it down".

If I hadn't decided that I wanted to escape the winter, or if the wifey and I "didn't work out" - I can imagine myself in a small hospital in New England - Vermont/New Hampshire or West Massachusettes, in particular. Away from "big-city life" and having some kind of a hand in a small pub/restaurant that caters to the minor-league hockey (AHL) crowds. Doctor by day, pubtender by night, live a small, contained life.

Like I said, its 'alternate universe' time. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has thought of these scenarios.
 
RustedFox said:
Sorry for the loosely-framed hypothetical; like I said - I was dead-tired and just wanted to "get it down".

If I hadn't decided that I wanted to escape the winter, or if the wifey and I "didn't work out" - I can imagine myself in a small hospital in New England - Vermont/New Hampshire or West Massachusettes, in particular. Away from "big-city life" and having some kind of a hand in a small pub/restaurant that caters to the minor-league hockey (AHL) crowds. Doctor by day, pubtender by night, live a small, contained life.

Like I said, its 'alternate universe' time. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has thought of these scenarios.
Click to expand...

There is a you in another universe that has that right now. You just are no longer in sync with that reality.
 
Haaahaha. - Are you waiting for match day, or are you a MS 1/2/3 ?

You spend a lot of time on here. Not a bad thing; I do, too.
 
Waiting for match day. Counting down with anxiety. This forum really has been a good guide for me since I thought about medical school.

We are both UTers!
 
SeekerOfTheTree said:
There is a you in another universe that has that right now. You just are no longer in sync with that reality.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see we have a Multiverse interpreter of Quantum Physics here. Or is it that you like Nietzsche?
 
I would have gone with my top gun infatuation and joined the air force or navy and been a fighter pilot.
 
SeekerOfTheTree said:
Multiverse and parallel worlds guy! Love quantum mechanics.
Click to expand...

Mee to. Well, in my love of quantum weirdness, can't really say I'm a parallel worlds interpreter. But for purposes of this thread, in my alternate reality I'd have pursued a career Physics or Philosophy. As it is, I do it from an armchair rather than a lectern.
 
Or I'd have kept at the music thing and be joining my buddies who still do it on the road, every week, sleeping in hotels and drinking entirely too much nightly.

It's funny, what sounded like "living the dream" when I was 18 sounds terrible to the 33-year-old-dad me.
 
My alternate universe? Practicing EM where most of the patients are grateful AND respectful of my training and education. No CMG skimming off my hard earned money, and able to take classics and ancient history classes three days a week..just for fun. Don't need any more college credits thank you very much. Ooh! Taking a brew class...
 
Toledo. Too far up north. Wish I had gone to a Texas school. My loans would be less.
 
My alternate universe involves me remembering some of the stuff I spent the last three and a half years desperately trying to learn. And maybe having learned other useful things or had fun instead of playing WoW.

Also, I'd probably be an accountant. I'd have been a FANTASTIC accountant.
 
If I hadn't joined an MD/PhD program, I'd be done with residency by now instead of counting down the hours to Match. Hell, I might not even be in EM.
 
Last edited:
SeekerOfTheTree said:
Multiverse and parallel worlds guy! Love quantum mechanics.
Click to expand...
I know this is a really old post, but I just read Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll which is about quantum many worlds theory. Fascinating.
 
You bumped this post and I can't believe I wrote this 10+ years ago.

New England?

Th' hell was wrong with me.
 
RustedFox said:
You bumped this post and I can't believe I wrote this 10+ years ago.

New England?

Th' hell was wrong with me.
Click to expand...
You were pre broken-fox back then. You were still able to see that New England is amazing.

Now you're in the post-broken, rebuilt fox era. Also good, but also fully Florida man Fox.
 
BoardingDoc said:
You were pre broken-fox back then. You were still able to see that New England is amazing.

Now you're in the post-broken, rebuilt fox era. Also good, but also fully Florida man Fox.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'm liking it here less and less.
Even though my ER situation is better than it has ever been from both a pay-per-hour and a volume/acuity perspective.

I'm on straight "cruise control" now at the ER. Don't even have to turn my brain on most days. Getting away from Country Club Medical Center was the best thing.

It WAS great here in FL, then EVERYONE moved here. Wife complains about it too, but is entirely unwilling to leave "the warm".
 
RustedFox said:
Honestly, I'm liking it here less and less.
Even though my ER situation is better than it has ever been from both a pay-per-hour and a volume/acuity perspective.

I'm on straight "cruise control" now at the ER. Don't even have to turn my brain on most days. Getting away from Country Club Medical Center was the best thing.

It WAS great here in FL, then EVERYONE moved here. Wife complains about it too, but is entirely unwilling to leave "the warm".
Click to expand...
Upstate SC would love to have you. Not as warm as Florida but also not as hot as Florida.
 
If COVID never happened, I'd be back in academia somewhere – probably Brown or Yale, close to my wife's family.

But, COVID – and we bailed on the U.S. to New Zealand for what has gone from temporary to indefinitely ....
 
VA Hopeful Dr said:
Upstate SC would love to have you. Not as warm as Florida but also not as hot as Florida.
Click to expand...
Love upstate SC but has a reasonably high proportion of 40s and rainy which is my least favorite non-fatal weather.
 
If the 2020 Covid job apocalypse had never happened, I don’t think I’d ever have had the guts to do fellowship. Now that I’ve done it I’m very happy but don’t think I would ever do it again.

Being a consultant is so much better than working in the pit on the endless treadmill. I’m glad I still work downstairs but it’s not my only job.

But my god 2 extra years of q2 call has taken years off my life. Im not sure how much is regular 30s aging, but damn if I don’t look WORN after those years on the coals.

It’s time for an ozempic/botox/gym bolus. And maybe a hair transplant.
 
The Knife & Gun Club said:
If the 2020 Covid job apocalypse had never happened, I don’t think I’d ever have had the guts to do fellowship. Now that I’ve done it I’m very happy but don’t think I would ever do it again.

Being a consultant is so much better than working in the pit on the endless treadmill. I’m glad I still work downstairs but it’s not my only job.

But my god 2 extra years of q2 call has taken years off my life. Im not sure how much is regular 30s aging, but damn if I don’t look WORN after those years on the coals.

It’s time for an ozempic/botox/gym bolus. And maybe a hair transplant.
Click to expand...
What did you end up doing, crit care? I wish there was a 40/hr a week way to transition into a different specialty instead of the residency path again.
 
The Knife & Gun Club said:
If the 2020 Covid job apocalypse had never happened, I don’t think I’d ever have had the guts to do fellowship. Now that I’ve done it I’m very happy but don’t think I would ever do it again.

Being a consultant is so much better than working in the pit on the endless treadmill. I’m glad I still work downstairs but it’s not my only job.

But my god 2 extra years of q2 call has taken years off my life. Im not sure how much is regular 30s aging, but damn if I don’t look WORN after those years on the coals.

It’s time for an ozempic/botox/gym bolus. And maybe a hair transplant.
Click to expand...

Let me know how you're doing, bro.
 
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!"

- Robert Frost

It is human nature to "what if" the opportunity costs in life. What if I had picked a different specialty? What if I had gone to a different residency? What if I worked somewhere else?

There's no way for me to know this about the time I spent in medicine, but I can absolutely trace the exact alternate career paths based on what was on the table in my Plan A career field that I went back to after leaving EM. In that field, about the first 66% of it would have been a good bit better, the last 33% of it would have been a whole lot worse. That's to say that between Covid, the Great Financial Crisis, 9/11, and the various other disruptions in the last few decades, things worked out about as well as they could have.

If I had to do it again, though, I would not have picked EM.
 
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