Three Years of FIRE and the Point of No Return

It’s been over three years since I stepped out from the call room I called home for the weekend, changed into plain clothes in the locker room adjacent to the operating rooms, and wondered if I’d ever put on a pair of scrubs again.

I’ve been asked many times if I might go back to work as a physician. My early answer was “probably not” and the likelihood needle has moved closer and closer to zero ever since.

The Point of No Return

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In certain careers, a person can leave for an extended period of time and pick up where they left off with relative ease, even if it’s years down the line. Physician careers are not among these, especially the ones in which procedural skills are important. To be frank, if I were in need of a medical procedure, I would not want to have a surgeon, anesthesiologist, interventional radiologist or cardiologist who is in his first few days back after an extended absence of many months.

As the doctor, I’d want to be confident in my skills and up to date on the latest literature. After a year or two away from medicine, I can’t imagine many physicians would have that confidence. I sure wouldn’t. After three years, forget it.

A lot of effort and money goes into the maintenance of Board certification, medical licensure, various certifications, and maintenance of hospital privileges. I started letting some of these lapse after my first year out of the game, and now, all I’ve got left is my ABA certification, which will officially expire in 2027.

Semi-Retirement

I don’t identify as a fully retired person. I did retire from medicine, but I haven’t stopped working or earning an income. This website has kept me as busy as I’d like to be in that regard; I ran it for three and a half years while working as an anesthesiologist and it’s been my sole “job” for the last three years and change.

I put the word “job” in quotes because I’ve got the valuable ability to work as little or as much as I want on it from wherever I choose to be. Retired not retired, if you will. I rarely wake up to an alarm clock, and if I do, it’s usually to catch a flight or get in an early morning run before it gets too warm out.

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