It's official today: Less Than a Month until we move. Patients now are almost all on their "last visits" and the bittersweet process of closure and goodbye is in full swing - hugs and thank-you's, kind words and little tokens. Being military, one gets used to saying goodbye regularly, but oddly, this is one of the few times I have left a practice with proper closure. The last two have coincided with my maternity leaves, both of which began precipitously with obstetrical emergencies and prolonged hospitalisation.
The first time, I did morning rounds, saw a number of patients on the maternity ward, popped down to my Ob's office, was examined and promptly sent packing back to maternity, this time for admission. Later that morning, the ambulance attendants wheeled me out on a guerney, past several of my own stunned patients, en route to the big city hospital down the road. My second pregnancy culminated in an equally unexpected 3 month hospital stay. (For the record, the end result in each case was a perfect, healthy baby, for which I am eternally grateful.) The swift role reversal was dizzying, and though I was too consumed with my own fears and worries and physical pain to fret about how my patients would do without me (just fine, of course), I did regret the lack of a proper transition.
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