01/20/2025
This year, I will be entering my 20th year of practicing medicine. 15 of those have been as an anesthesiologist. I have taken care of well over 15,000 patients. In those 15 years, I've only had a couple of major complications occur during anesthesia in a healthy patient, and those patients ultimately did well. And, yet, now that the most important little girl in the world to me, my baby girl and my only daughter, is undergoing anesthesia, I am anxious and nervous. I am not in control. The oral surgeon is a good friend of mine and is highly experienced. The anesthesiologist is well-qualified. I trust them and am grateful to have access to the wonderful medical care we have in this country. But my 15 years of experience and thousands of anesthetics performed don't matter in this moment. I just have to trust that she is in good hands and everything will be okay.
As a physician, moments like this are critical to me. They remind me how important it is to be kind, compassionate, and understanding when caring for my patients. To understand their fear and anxiety. To realize that helping them overcome those fears and feel at ease is just as important as the quality of the anesthesia I provide. I am grateful for and humbled by the work I get to do every day. To wake up every day and get the opportunity to do something I truly love to do and have people trust me with their lives is something that doesn't get lost on me. We gain far more wisdom and insight from our moments of weakness and vulnerability than we ever do from our moments of strength and confidence.
