Yesterday I received an e-mail from Junior Partner (“JP”) re: a research assignment. JP wants me to spend three hours gathering information on a certain medical condition. Now, the Firm doesn’t take any personal injury cases, so this could only mean one thing: JP’s teenage son has to write a research paper for English! (Umm, if anyone knows of any good articles on asthma, let me know. Especially if they contain cool pictures.)
For as long as I have been at the Firm, JP and I have been helping JP Jr. with his homework. Everything except math. JP had to hire a math tutor because we both suck at math.
When I first read JP’s e-mail, I had this brief moment of panic. Why does he want me to research a medical condition? Does he secretly monitor my Internet activity? Does he know about the medblog addiction? Can he read the e-mails I send/receive on my Yahoo mail account? [Please – no comments on whether the e-mail thing is possible. I don’t want to know the answer. I would rather live in ignorant bliss.]
In a (now deleted) post last week, I questioned whether I should continue to keep the medblog thing a secret. Really, I questioned whether I should continue to blog at all. I thought the strain of hiding my secret life as Medblog Addict was getting to me. Obviously, I chose to continue. At least for now. And I will continue to keep my identity as Medblog Addict a secret. I think I have to because I seem to remember writing a post wherein I revealed that (1) Boyfriend is an old fart trial attorney; and (2) I hated every pompous, tiny prick, rat bastard attorney that I worked with.
Right now, I have a research project to do. I have to finish it by 3:00 or else Dad won’t let me go to the big dance on Saturday night.
For as long as I have been at the Firm, JP and I have been helping JP Jr. with his homework. Everything except math. JP had to hire a math tutor because we both suck at math.
When I first read JP’s e-mail, I had this brief moment of panic. Why does he want me to research a medical condition? Does he secretly monitor my Internet activity? Does he know about the medblog addiction? Can he read the e-mails I send/receive on my Yahoo mail account? [Please – no comments on whether the e-mail thing is possible. I don’t want to know the answer. I would rather live in ignorant bliss.]
In a (now deleted) post last week, I questioned whether I should continue to keep the medblog thing a secret. Really, I questioned whether I should continue to blog at all. I thought the strain of hiding my secret life as Medblog Addict was getting to me. Obviously, I chose to continue. At least for now. And I will continue to keep my identity as Medblog Addict a secret. I think I have to because I seem to remember writing a post wherein I revealed that (1) Boyfriend is an old fart trial attorney; and (2) I hated every pompous, tiny prick, rat bastard attorney that I worked with.
Right now, I have a research project to do. I have to finish it by 3:00 or else Dad won’t let me go to the big dance on Saturday night.
14 comments:
I think JP's son should do his own damn research project . . . Um, this is, ya know, CHEATING. Point the kid to the medblogs, medscape, ThompsonGale, etc. . . . If he has been assigned the project, he can do it. Are you going to do his university level work too? Ethics, MA, ethics . . . (yes, doing the research portion is still cheating even if he is doing the writing portion).
On a different note, I would keep your identity secret. It just makes life easier, and if you know people who are reading your blog, and you know they know its you, you end up censoring yourself, which defeats the entire purpose of blogging.
Personally, my wife doesn't even know I have a blog.. (of course, she doesn't even know what a blog is, either)
Gee, am I going to have to download you posts? I didn't even know you were deleting stuff.
But be careful of being dooced ("being fired for writing something in your blog" -- in the lexicon, via dooce.com who was fired as above, now earns a very fine living from blogging).
I see several fine candidates in your post for the murder I suggested yesterday. You could take out a contract. Dr Deb was offering the services of an Uncle to someone in the comment section recently.
Seriously, don't go away. There's a few of us "addicted to medblogs" like you and I consider you our spokesperson! Plus I enjoy your posts a lot.
jmb
I know it’s hard to remain stealth in this ubiquitous world of the internet, but it can be done.
I know I have had to hold back on some wonderful stories and antidotes because I KNOW if the parties involved ever read my blog, they WOULD know its me and I would be Dooced. Bummer, because I have some stories that folks would think I made up...
Enjoying your posts, thanks.
:-) Whine
The anonynity thing is interesting. I think I'd not have gone bare had I not had a book to hawk. On the other hand, without the book I probably wouldn't have discovered the whole blogging thing, either. On the one hand, it's made me more scrupulous about disguising identities of people about whom I write; on the other, some stuff about certain local institutions is there for the taking. If I were still in active practice, it might have been problematic.... You should keep writing, even if you've relegated me to not worthy of mention as a readable blog. Your stuff is great, especially the office rants. My family is full of lawyers. I get it!
Don't know if I mentioned it here or somewhere else, or not at all (that's my brain, what's left of it): a colleague (ER doc extraordinaire) went to law school while working, with the idea that she'd eventually set up a practice defending docs in malpractice cases. She passed the bar, left law journals all over the doctors lounge, and eventually decided she couldn't stand working with attorneys, and gave it all up.... She has gotten into medical politics, and will soon be (I think) president of the state medical association. So I suppose some good came of it...
I'd stay anonymous and keep on bloggin'....
DP, I’m learning to choose my battles, and this is not one of them.
Thanks for your kind comments. In my now deleted post, I linked the posts of DisappearingJohn and MSG wherein they wrote about their secret blogging life. In the beginning it was fun having a secret identity/life, but when trust issues came up in my relationship with BF, I started to have second thoughts. But I think I’m over it for now.
Ok, Dr. S. First, thank you for the mention on Surgeonsblog. I never found a case where the surgeon got sued for scaring a patient away from surgery, but while researching it, I did come across a funny case that I will probably be writing about next week. What do you mean relegated to not worthy? Everyone knows this is the unofficial Dr. Schwab fan site. I don’t know how or when Surgeonsblog disappeared from my link list, but I added it back to the list several days ago. Being a charter member of your fan club and your most loyal reader, you know I would have never deleted it on purpose. I did take Dr. Dork’s advice and sign up for Blogroll. Only, apparently, I’m too dumb to understand the one-click blogrolling system because I can’t get it to work right.
Gee, AMB, if you figure out the one click thing, let me know. I'm apparently too dumb to live. I'm dying to get a blogroll but so far haven't been successful. I see you have links and a decent sidebar, I'm so jealous.
Still I found "Blogging in a Snap" at the library today, so I'm hopeful I will master it soon.
I'm another fan of Dr Sid. I love his surgical posts, which is funny really, since I'm squeamish and that's why I did Pharmacy, not Medicine or Nursing or any of that hands on stuff.
jmb (The Zero Slasher)
I was here earlier and inadvertently lost what i typed to you and now i am tired, but I am reading your stuff and looking forward to your post your medical case post.
I too am a loyal reader of Dr. Schwab's posts. (one of my favorites)
Apprentice tomorrow. The Amazing Race this week?
Enough about Dr. Schwab. You're going to spoil him.
i try to maintain anonimity, but for people from my neck of the woods, to figure out who i am is so simple it is actually as joke. a while ago a one of my interns comes up to me in the hospital and says he loves my blog. so much for anonimity. ha ha ha.
M.A. - spoil him? He's a surgeon - he already has the EGO! ;)
Ego??? I'm humble. I'm the humlest person in the world. My humility is like the sky, it's all around us, for everyone to see. If my humility were water, you'd drown in it. I make Mother Theresa look like Donald Trump. I've got hulmilty up my...
I'm kidding Dr. Schwab.. I think....yeah, that's it I'm kidding. ;)
You don't come across like the ego maniacs that throw a chair across the OR (I know of someone that did that a long time ago and he was suspended for a while)- you truly come across as a committed, compassionate a skilled surgeon. I am impressed that you even took the time after the surgery to reassure that female patient who needed extra reassurance and that you would have as long as necessary. Who knows what impact for the good you had on her life. She was having a difficult time and you recognized it and maintained your commitment above and beyond the call of duty. :)
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