Doctor T, don’t you get tired of only seeing older patients?
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We even play along and parents share a chuckle at their “important” problems, appreciating their young and limited perspective, and knowing everything will be just fine. Now consider how grandma thinks of that critical deadline of your “world changing“ project or that important deal that are losing sleep over. I always try to think about their perspective during stressful times :)
I don't think acting like a 70 year old in 20s/30s/40s is wise - you're not retired with most of your accomplishments behind you.
Reminds me of words from Mary Schmich's famous "Sunscreen" column (https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen...): "... Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself."
Not sure whether I agree with you and her or not. Yes, the race is damned long and I recognize that it is ultimately only with myself. On the other hand, much like trying to beat your own high score, it can be kind of fun and, perhaps more realistically, like many I have nothing better to do.
I think I get your message... Wouldn't you consider finding something better to strive for a win for you? It all depends on what we do for living, there is a difference when working for a faceless corporation du jour and for example in an NGO saving lives / company properly building a better future (ie SpaceX). Unfortunately most of us including me fall into the first category of that corp.
I think I do have found this 'better' stuff for myself, in form of adventures, travel and slightly extreme sports. It brings sense of accomplishment that no software developed would, refills my batteries over weekend like nothing in the city can. But that's me (and my wife).
Life is so damn short. If you don't feel like it, just wait a bit more.
People who appear to me to live happy lives don't seem to have gone through those phases to get there, or regard them as important.
But I also cannot think of anyone who fits that image of a sagacious, wise elder. Nor, upon reflection, do I think anyone I know, myself included, is likely to be that person when old.
I totally buy that wisdom accumulated in years 0-60. I feel it will on average hold or drop thereonafter
I've seen the world change a lot in my years, and I can only imagine what it's like for someone who has lived two or even three times as long. Keep in mind they were born at a time when nearly half of the houses in America didn't have indoor plumbing.
I had a job selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door when I was young (like 15ish), the thing I noticed was that grumpy people are normally in the mid-30s to mid-50s range.
I worked that job for 9 months (it was awful) and I would talk to upwards of 30 people a night, 4-5 nights a week. What I noticed (and this is all anecdotal), 30's-mid 40's women were always very polite and would make time if they had it, men in that range were extremely rude and had little patience for a solicitor. Mid-40's to 60 the roles reversed, women would be a lot ruder, but the men would be nicer and almost had an appreciation that I was hustling and would make some time for me.
Over 60, most women and men were pretty laid back and accommodating if they had the time.
But I am sometimes surprised when people tell me that's not a universal feeling. At some point I came across some study claiming to show that it made people less trusting of people outside of family.
I took care of my mother until she passed away at 90. When she was young she never relaxed about anything. I think this was because of growing up during the great depression.
When she came to live with us she became very sweet and child like in her outlook. I think it was because she trusted us and felt she could relax. I feel sorry for my sisters because they only knew her middle years and never saw the person I saw.
Perhaps the grumpy ones stress themselves out and don't make it as long.
Or less morbidly, perhaps the grumpy ones are just not those you are likely to get to know.
When you stretch out the timescale, the importance of things changes.
90 years is a long time. My grandfather is 96. The Nazi's kicked him out of Vienna in 1938. A lifetime of lessons, of loss, of disappointment, of excitement, of calm, of contribution.
One of the more exciting recent trends in healthcare (in my opinion) is the emerging focus on holistic quality of life for seniors as they age and move through their healthcare transitions. A person is more than just their physical health; we have emotional, spiritual, intellectual, creative, vocational, and environmental health needs as well.
Considering and incorporating those ideas into how we, as a country, take care of our seniors is incredibly important and impactful.
I echo briandear, thank you to the person who linked these tweets.
Note: USA perspective
Do doctors for older patients have more slack in their schedules or is there some trick in how his practice works?
I trusted him thoroughly, with everything. He was about 10 years older than me and I worried what it meant when he retired and I no longer had access to this person who so deeply understood me--exactly when I started needing him most. This post is encouraging, to say the least.
- Don't you get tired of [emotionally coping with interacting with people who tend to have more health issues and issues with worse outcomes]? (Is it fair to want to see healthier individuals for your own personal reasons? How does one defend their psyche from seeing trauma so often?)
- Don't you get tired of [having to work primarily with a population that has a limited set of recurring problems that may not be as interesting or rewarding to work on]? (How ethical is it to want specific kinds of engagement from your job? Is it okay to be annoyed with individuals with preventable diseases and injuries?)
I have a number of close friends who are new doctors, and they grapple with these kinds of issues all the time.
We can't know what the conversation was like, or either the doctor or student's story, but I agree it's not necessarily helpful to the student to just wax poetic.
I wonder if that's true, from the perspective of the doctor. The stereotype, at least where I live, is that old people will go regularly to the doctor almost just to chat, whereas a young person will only go when there's something wrong with them.
I think someone, like maybe this Dr T has, needs to find deeper meaning in continuing mundane work day in and day out.
...Or you could just tell her right now, instead of going off and tweeting your smug thought.
Still, this was a nice set of stories.
Modernity in a nutshell right there.
Not sure how or why you would teach young people about general meaninglessness of most things. It's risky and could kill talents and inventions.
Finally people do not get interesting without making mistakes.
- Times I’ve learned a lesson by advice: 0
- Times a lesson taught by advice turned out to be false: 400
I don’t know. There’s so many things people take for granted that it is a dangerous thing to just take someone’s word for it.
I sometimes wonder if bad advice is running more rampant today or if it was always this bad.
Are you suggesting the first people that learned to cross a road got hit by cars before realizing they had to look both ways? There was no one to tell them how to look, so how did they learn it except by "being hit by a car"?
Edit: but for what it’s worth even in this stupid example. To learn from experience that you must look both ways does imply you suffered the consequence of not knowing it beforehand. Be that being hit or coming close. Pedantic w/e
I bet he tells that same story every week to a different intern.
Probably forgets he told it already so tells it two or three times to the same intern.
"Definitely not. That medical student was a composite of every student I’ve had who has rotated with me and at some point asked me why on earth I chose a specialty that has a mostly geriatric population. It’s a valid question, the illnesses can be complex with many issues."
> the patient was actually a composite of hundreds of patients over twenty years spanning states.
https://twitter.com/TheRealDoctorT/status/117230945733996135...
What a well composed doctor.