I’ve been a physician for a very long time, and I still love what I do.  I would not have had it any other way – except maybe being an astronaut.  But I wear glasses, so that wouldn’t work …

Most of the time it was really fun.  Some times were pretty tough.  I didn’t like working 36 hours on and 12 hours off when I rotated through neurosurgery.  But it was a lot of fun when the first operation I ever did was to open the chest of a young man stabbed in the heart and removed the blood clots interfering with   his heartbeat and saved his life.  Unfortunately, the next time I had to do that it didn’t work …

I didn’t much enjoy taking care of the 12-year-old boy with 100% burns over his body.  Survival for type of injury was unprecedented.  That’s doctor-speak meaning he wasn’t going to survive no matter what we did or how hard we tried.  But we did try and he did die.

But I really did have fun delivering babies.  Maybe that’s why I really don’t like abortions.

I graduated from medical school a few years after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States.  As a result, the phrase “I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy” was no longer in the Hippocratic Oath.  I really didn’t like that.  I think I remember quietly saying it under my breath during the ceremony.  Oh, and I never did one!

I’ve generally always respected my colleagues.  It’s probably because I know what they went through to become a physician.  But I’ve kind of lost my respect for doctors that do abortions. And so many are being done nowadays – nearly 900,000 in the United States alone in 2019 …

It does upset me though, that we were taught bad science in medical school.  I thought a person with two “XX” chromosomes was a woman and a person with an “X” and a “Y” chromosome was a man.  Now it seems a person can be anything they want to be.  And it really bothers me because doctors should know better.  If a woman (two “X” chromosomes) thinks she’s a male that’s perfectly OK nowadays.  Back when I went to school, she had a mental disorder.  Now, I can’t refer to her as “she” and if I imply that she’s got a mental issue I could be sanctioned.  What’s happened to medical science?  And here’s where I lose it – if she wants to have her normal uterus and vagina removed and a penis constructed, there are doctors that will do it.  What ever happened to Rule #1 – First do no harm!  And all of that applies the same to a man (one “X” and one “Y” chromosome) who thinks he’s a woman.

But you know what really scares me?  There are adults out there who believe their children are not the right gender.  They want their kids to receive medications to stop them undergoing puberty so the “correct” gender can be chosen. Interesting, I was never taught in school that you could choose your gender …

I’m glad I’m an old doctor.  I don’t really like what’s being taught nowadays.  It doesn’t seem like it’s fun anymore.  It’s sad and it’s wrong …

 

 

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