Clean up day

A little bit of nostalgia today. Went to the office with some large cardboard boxes, emptied my desk and cleared my room. I lugged it all home and spent several hours sifting through it. I certainly had accumulated a lot of garbage over 24 years of practice, but there were a few gems. There were prescription pads displaying the many iterations of our group over the years. There were applications for privileges at various hospitals along with letters of support from colleagues. There was abundant drug company swag and there was a copy of one great letter of rebuke I had composed and forwarded back in 1993 to one of the major drug companies who had sent a flier inviting our group for a night of "male bonding" at the ball park. We were supposed to bring our "Skoal or Redman" and bring an "appetite for ball park junk food." Somehow I felt that excluding women, chewing tobacco and eating junk was not the right message to send to a group of cardiologists. Particularly stupid for a drug company, no? I expect some of you (that is if anyone actually reads my rant) are saying, "Get a life-Don't be such a tight-ass." Well, I can't help it. That's me. What else was in the desk? There were lots of notes about things I intended to do but never got around to, tons of slides sent by drug companies (anyone seen a slide projector lately?), VCR tapes of echocardiograms, old interesting EKG's, letters (mostly nice ones) from patients, etc, etc. Throwing 95% of it away didn't hurt one bit. I left most of my books. Old textbooks are basically worthless. We already laugh at some of the things we were doing just a few years ago. I took down my diplomas and certificates. I removed the bronze cast of Gandhi that one of my patients (a 90 something Optometrist who had worn stereo earplugs piping in classical music almost constantly for the last 4 years of his life so that he wouldn't have to listen to his wife nag him) had crafted. From the wall opposite my desk I removed the physician's Oath of Maimonides-a simple prayer which I read most every day I saw patients. BTW, it was probably not written by Maimonides but it's inspiring, nonetheless. I took them all down and packed them away. My secretary (excuse me---Administrative Assistant!) looked sad as I left. But I wasn't.

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