Doctors get sick too! AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Re-Mind Yourself

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Episode: Doctors get sick too!

Author: Michelle Chestovich MD
Duration: 00:10:35

Episode Shownotes

Physician coach Michelle Chestovich MD shares how taking care of you can be hard in the current medical system but also shares how this is vital for you and your patients.

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Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
You are listening to Episode 160 of the Remind Yourself Podcast. Welcome to the Remind Yourself Podcast, the podcast for physician moms just like you. Want to ditch mom guilt? Stop yelling and start enjoying their lives today.

00:00:22 Speaker_00
I'm your host, Rachelle Chestovich, certified life coach, family physician, and mom of four. If you want to overcome overwhelm for once and for all, this is the place for you. Hello, Mama Docs, and welcome back.

00:00:40 Speaker_00
I have a very important question for each and every one of you today. Have you ever called in sick and taken a sick day?

00:00:50 Speaker_00
This is something that recently came up in my group coaching program that somebody said that they were feeling miserable and they called in sick.

00:00:58 Speaker_00
And while she was really happy that she did that because she was feeling so bad, she had an overwhelming sense of guilt throughout the day and thought maybe she should be checking in online. And this is something that I hear time and again.

00:01:12 Speaker_00
And certainly in my 20 years of practice, I've definitely experienced. Things may have gotten a little bit better for us when COVID first came around. No, again, one little thing might've gotten a little bit better.

00:01:24 Speaker_00
For most of us, the world turned upside down and it was not awesome in those COVID days.

00:01:29 Speaker_00
And yet the one thing that came up was that, at least in the beginning, if you had a fever, you needed to stay home and test and take a break if you were sick, right? If you came back positive for COVID, like we had strategies in place for that.

00:01:43 Speaker_00
Never before in all of my years of medicine, Was that something that we were told to do? Now, of course, it wasn't ideal if you came to work with a fever.

00:01:51 Speaker_00
Most of us tried to follow those basic practices, and yet most of us, instead of calling in sick, would take some ibuprofen or somehow otherwise Medicaid and go to work. All of us have our badge of honor stories where we were working while sick.

00:02:08 Speaker_00
and I just want to say we need to stop it. We need to normalize that the fact that we too indeed are humans and we get sick and it's okay to take time to take care of ourself.

00:02:21 Speaker_00
I know it's very uncomfortable to call in when we have a panel of patients to be seen and our team is relying on us to be there and yet the world does keep spinning if we don't show up. I have multiple stories to share to prove this true.

00:02:39 Speaker_00
But the main reason that we don't do it is because we feel so much guilt and obligation. We feel that people will be disappointed and that we will be called not a team player. But I want you to consider this.

00:02:53 Speaker_00
Is it a team player to show up with an infectious gastrointestinal disease that you're going to be sharing with your colleagues and possibly and probably the patients as well? I would have to vote no for that, right? But in the culture of medicine,

00:03:08 Speaker_00
We're trained to keep working even when we're exhausted and even when we're sick.

00:03:13 Speaker_00
I've had multiple conversations with people who took pride in the fact that they were so sick they had to end up going to the emergency department and getting IV fluids and then they were back at work an hour later.

00:03:27 Speaker_00
And I'll tell you that this is very atypical and not normal. Something that particularly breaks my heart is that I've had many conversations with women who've been at work while they were miscarrying.

00:03:40 Speaker_00
They were having horrible cramps and they were losing their early stage of their pregnancy, and yet they didn't feel comfortable saying, I need to be home right now.

00:03:51 Speaker_00
I don't have the wisdom to know what's right for you when or when you shouldn't be going to work. All I know is that our culture of medicine is quite toxic and many of us show up to work when we shouldn't be there.

00:04:04 Speaker_00
There were so many days when I was in my family medicine clinic that I was giving notes to patients who were less sick than me to be off work because I could tell that they were miserable.

00:04:15 Speaker_00
And I know that our body is very healing when you crawl into bed and drink a lot of fluids and take medicines to help ease the discomfort, that our body can heal faster. And yet, what do we docs do? We just keep going.

00:04:31 Speaker_00
We take some Sudafed, we take some ibuprofen and keep after it. Now again, some days that might be totally appropriate. But I think that so many of us worry that if we don't show up, that the world is going to end.

00:04:43 Speaker_00
And years ago, I used to get really sick to my stomach, even when I would know that my kids were sick, they would be, you know, the puke train was coming through my four kids. And I thought to myself, I can't miss work tomorrow, I would literally

00:04:57 Speaker_00
and maybe it was really just the stomach bug coming to get me too, but my stomach would hurt so much just thinking, I can't not go to work, but who's gonna take care of my kids?

00:05:06 Speaker_00
Thankfully for me, my husband had a very flexible job and he was able to do that. And then one day I realized, what if, God forbid, I got hit by a bus today? I wouldn't be able to show up for work tomorrow. And you know what? They would figure it out.

00:05:24 Speaker_00
Now, that's kind of a tragic story that I tell over and over again. God forbid I get hit by a bus. And yet there was some little mindset shift that happened in my brain when I realized, yes, I'm important and the world still does function without me.

00:05:38 Speaker_00
It gave me permission to be a little bit more kind to ourself. Now, how many times did I call in sick over my 20 years? I don't know, probably a couple. And it was usually related to throwing up or having a really high fever. And I'm not proud of that.

00:05:53 Speaker_00
And again, I have stories and I know you do as well of working when sick. But this situation that came up in my coaching call the other night, and the fact that I'm also getting over kind of a nasty upper respiratory GI combo,

00:06:07 Speaker_00
I realized, yes, we too indeed are humans, and wouldn't it be great if we started to take care of ourselves, like we take care of our families, and like we tell our patients to take care of themselves.

00:06:23 Speaker_00
I think some people worry that if doctors start calling in sick that there's going to be a shortage and what I will tell you is that we're pretty high achieving and we are likely not going to be calling in because you just feel a little bit off or you have a scratchy throat, right?

00:06:40 Speaker_00
That's not what this is about but so many people are going to work quite ill when they should really be home.

00:06:47 Speaker_00
And if it helps you to remember that it's best to not share infectious diseases with our patients, and that's what you need to do to stay home, so be it. But typically, the main thing that we're trying to avoid by not calling in sick is we're

00:07:02 Speaker_00
trying to avoid feeling guilty or trying to avoid feeling like we're disappointing others. And if you listen back to last week's episode when I talk about disappointment, you'll realize they may or may not be disappointed. People may be disappointed.

00:07:18 Speaker_00
They may be grateful that you're taking time for you because you'll be back at it full force before you know it. And so I think that this whole message today is to remind you that you indeed are human and it's okay to take care of you.

00:07:36 Speaker_00
And in fact, by calling in sick when you should really be in bed versus rounding on patients or seeing patients in clinic,

00:07:45 Speaker_00
This starts to be an example to others that we indeed are humans, and we then can start to be the ripple effect for the changes that can be made in medicine. I don't know of any doc who was given sick days.

00:08:00 Speaker_00
A lot of organizations do it differently with PTO, so on and so forth. But yet we're never encouraged to take time for us. And when you have PTO days, most of us don't want to stay home sick. We'd rather go on vacation.

00:08:14 Speaker_00
But I want to remind you that you are worthy of taking care of yourself. If you can hardly drag yourself out of bed because you're feeling so ill, it's probably a sign that you should be calling in.

00:08:26 Speaker_00
Now, if you're somebody who's already learned this message and is doing it, thank you. Keep doing it. Spread the word. It's going to take a whole resistance from all of us to stand up and say, hey, docs get sick too. We need to take care of ourselves.

00:08:43 Speaker_00
And maybe it's not even an illness, right? There are certainly all kinds of illnesses going around that we come in contact with, but maybe it's that you need surgery. Maybe you had an injury and need to have surgery to take time to heal.

00:08:58 Speaker_00
And again, people may have words to you about that. Do you really need to do that now? Couldn't that wait for later? I want to remind you that you are human, and it is OK to take time for you to rest and recover and heal.

00:09:14 Speaker_00
This is what we do as physicians. We help heal others. And I'm going to remind you that you also need to allow yourself to heal. So I know that this is not a myth that doctors get sick, but let's just start normalizing it.

00:09:34 Speaker_00
And when people start telling their horror stories or their gold medal stories, I've never called in sick in my 30 years of practice.

00:09:43 Speaker_00
You can just smile and know that in taking care of you, you are being an example to others and you are making this job more sustainable. All right, my friends, I hope that you are well.

00:09:57 Speaker_00
and that this does not pertain to you at the moment, but if you have been sick or you do have an upcoming surgery, know that it's okay to take time for you. Until next week, peace and love to all of you.

00:10:12 Speaker_00
Are you ready to take control of your life and put these tools into action? I'm here to help. I offer free consultations for physician moms to see if my one-on-one coaching package is right for you.

00:10:24 Speaker_00
You can sign up for a free consult at www.MamaDocLifeCoach.com.