GP Land

 Well, not much has changed! I guess I'm finally in coast-mode.

I dropped out of the Master of Psychiatry as I just wasn't enthusiastic about it and I really didn't want to pay $30k for it. I still enjoy psych but I'm finding I actually really enjoy a lot of aspects of medicine and General Practice. No two days are the same and there's always something new I've never seen.

Health = still in coast-mode. I stopped using Noom. It wasn't adding much extra value to my life after the first few weeks to be honest. I'm still doing workouts at home, sporadically. My goal is to be more consistent. I find when my motivation wanes then my workouts drop off and I haven't really found a way to make them regular like I did when I was on maternity leave and when I went during my lunch breaks.

I'm doing a lot of meditation and a lot of reading which is nice. And of course, as a mum, my home mum-life is always keeping me busy. There are always uniforms to wash and readers to read.

I guess this is what it's like to not be stressed all the time!

The Good Practice and GP Life

Six months into working as a GP Registrar at The Good Practice now. It's going really good. It took me a few months to get used to being treated fairly and respected after the first few hospital doctors years being so awful.

The work is pretty good too. I have my own office which is a newer one with a skylight and pot plants so I'm happy about that. It's been quite a nice mix of patients and acuity and I'm starting to enjoy the breadth of medicine you see in GP. I think I'd get bored in a specialty now that I've been doing this a little while.

I'm into the second semester of my Master of Psychiatry. It has been very neglected because of my other commitments and I'm uncertain if I'll continue, but Hubby is keen for me to continue.

The money is friggin amazing, Not to gloat but if you've read this blog you'd know of the massive sacrifices I've made for many years. It's so nice to be able to pay the bills without worrying too much. And because we did the Dave Ramsay Baby Steps when we had not much cash, we're able to streak ahead now. 

Having said that, Hubby might stop working and go to full-time study soon before we get used to the higher income and have lifestyle creep.

So:

1. Career - awesome

2. Family - awesome

3. Money- awesome

4. Home - awesome

5. Health - average

I've just started a Noom trial and I'm loving it. I was going to the gym every lunch break but I changed my hours so I can pick the kids up on time every day after school (the after-school care was stressing them) so now it's just a type of 10x workout at home.

That is all. Life is good.

And another job offer (psych)

Predictably, now I have General Registration coming to me (probably this week), all the doors have flung open for me including a phone call and job offer in psychiatry.

It's a tough decision for me because I really love psych, but it would not be a guarantee on the training program, even though I've been assured by the powers that I would be in a great position to secure a training position mid-year, as the primary income-earner for the family and my dependants with lofty and expensive goals, I think I need to stick with my sure-bet of GP Land at The Good practice. My game-plan would still to apply mid-year for psych training and see what happens. I'll likely still stay in GP Land and have a special interest in mental health (which, by the way, is the top reason for GP visits in Australia).

I've also enrolled into the Master of Psychiatry program so I'm very excited to be doing that alongside my GP training with the view to go on to further research and PhD in Psychiatry/Mental Health particularly how it relates to the GP/community/primary health care setting. 

So that is what I'm up to.

In other areas of life, I am still absolutely loving where I live. The kids are going great. Hubby is doing great in this new part-time gig as a Counsellor and other part-time gig as a law student. 

________

I'm not sure how long it's been since I've talked about money on here. It was intrinsic to being about to complete my media l degree that I got "good" at money. It was always something that historically I "wasn't good at." Flash-back to 2014 when I decided that if I was able to learn medicine then surely I could learn about money and I got myself a public library membership and read almost the whole section on money ("Economics"). I skipped the books that were overly technical but I read everything else and that included these books that I recommend:

Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsay

The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J Stanley

I also recommend World Poverty for Dummies (I already owned this from a humanitarian point of interest but I found it helped me get a grip on how wealthy I already was).

I guess I just mention this in case if you, like I was, are limited by your financial resources and need to maximise things to achieve your goals then this is what I recommend you do (read htose books, or listen to them on audiobook). 

Attached with purely financial books, I do also attribute the Marie Kondo method and minimalism as well to being an important step in how I "mastered the game."

Another job offer

Well, interesting development. This time I was the one who was head-hunted. This time from a clinic I would be crazy to say no to. The standard of which hey operate is second-to-none. I could not fail if I worked with them. And they said they'd match anything the first place offered me. 

I guess I'll wait for the contracts to be written and decide which one to sign! Yikes!

Can't wait for 2021!

Job offer

 I have a verbal job offer for a GP job so I'm just so happy and cannot wait. It's at the practice of my choice and I basically head-hunted them and they believe we are a perfect match. They will hold my position until I can be released from the hospital.

One more week of psychiatry and then some annual leave for me hooray.

Tracy Anderson Method has been going really well for me. I'm stepped out of the subscription streaming training and back into the Metamorphosis workouts on the old DVDs, but it's still been good.

Psychiatry Resident

I love it. I could easily be a psychiatrist. It's just very interesting to me.

I will continue my GP training pathway though because I do want a life outside of work and GP provides the best work-life balance. I will do extra training in psychiatry though.

For the past two weeks I've recommenced my TAM (Tracy Anderson Method) workouts. This time I'm streaming! I absolutely love it. Tracy has really grown i the past few years since I've not done her method and I'm very happy with what she's up to. There is a lot more focus on paraspinal strength and functional strength and mobility. Also on the mind-body connectedness regarding not just movement but strength and health.

Already I feel brilliant. What i really wanted was the energy and strenghth to play with my kids more, both at home and at the playground. So often I get there and just want to sit down and have a coffee. Yesterday I finally got that motivation and energy back and went on the pay ground equipment and they climbed all over me and I felt good within my body.

MY aim is to do it daily, allowing a day or two missed a week if necessary (but hopefully not).

Pandemic!

The Covid-19 pandemic hit in full-swing during my ED term. It threw a few of our normal practices up in the air, including our training schedules, exam dates, rotations, and day-to-day operation.

We were VERY lucky at our hospital. We saw Covid cases but were spared the tsunami that has broken many EDs around the world. We were certainly stretched and patients did not get the highest level of care in the most timely manner during that time but I think overall we avoided major bad outcomes.

Considering Emergency Departments are normally stretched thin on a normal day, the pandemic was very difficult to deal with.

Many of my colleagues and patients were very anxious, stressed, and scared. The PPE was horrible to wear (hot, itchy, restrictive) but we were thankful to have plenty. We also had to homeschool our eldest daughter and my husband took a brea from studying law to maintain the home front.

The first wave is behind us now and at the end of this week I move into Psychiatry.

I'm so happy to be off shift work for a while and onto normal shifts but I will miss having weekdays off.

The pandemic also paused my progress on the WBA so I am not due to finish that in October instead of July. Many of my colleagues are in a much worse position with exams being postponed etc.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the next term, working my through this year and to General Rgistration, and seeing what next year holds.