When I decided to put my white coat back on, I committed to reclaiming what I love about medicine and ditching what I’ve come to despise. In fact, after leaving medicine – supposedly for good – I had to expand and redefine “health” and change the whole way I think about practicing medicine in order to feel proud of my MD title and rekindle my on-again-off-again relationship with health care. Now that I am working with patients again – in my own way – I remember how much I truly love medicine and how I felt the call to serve at the young age of seven.
Years later, the calling is even stronger, so I’ve finally dropped to my knees in service to the calling I’ve long heard and long denied. I thought I had to leave medicine until I realized I felt called to redefine it. Promoting health without encouraging others to seek wholeness is an exercise in futility. Not until we realize that our bodies are mirrors of our interpersonal, spiritual, professional, sexual, creative, financial, environmental, mental, and emotional health will we truly heal.
I am not supposed to leave medicine – I’m supposed to be a force in the revolution to change our broken, outdated, patriarchal health care system. I’m supposed to be a pioneer, blaze a new trail, and feminize and modernize medicine. I’m supposed to make it SACRED and encourage patients, doctors, and countless other healers to do the same.