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Additional Entry
A Letter to Those Who Support Us
by Sina Khoshbin, MD Henry Ford Health Surgeon
To those who walk beside us,
Yours is a sacrifice which is not talked about. The difficult journey that physicians embark on for their careers is no secret. Long hours spent studying, late nights at work, and the mountain of paperwork are already known to the public. Little is known about your struggle, outside of select circles. The silence deemphasizes the importance of your role in our development. It hides how your actions help our patients recover.
Our absence is felt in your hearts. It is noticed at the empty dinner table, the empty bed, at
the important life events that we cannot share with you in person. Even when we are physically present, our minds may not be as we are preoccupied with the recent developments at work. Our attention is divided, as we answer the call of duty at all hours. You sacrifice your time with us, so that we may give time to our patients. Consequently, our patients get more time to spend with their loved ones. We often cannot spare the same amount of time for your interests or careers, putting more of the burden on you, but you accept this because you believe in the importance
of our work. Know that our patient’s appreciation for our care is also an appreciation for your dedication to us.
You see the toll that this journey takes on us. You see us at our most exhausted, our most vulnerable. You see the emotions that we hide from our peers. The empathy and support that should be shared with you gets depleted by our patients and sometimes you bear the brunt of the aftermath. You do not deserve this. We cannot say we would endure the same if the roles were reversed. However, you see through the exhaustion and pain and see the good within us. You care for the provider; you help us heal when the job makes us ill.
We signed up for this when we embarked on this journey, knowing how hard it would be. Many of you did not know, many of you did not have a choice. Yet still you persevere, accepting that these hardships are as much a part of your life as it is ours. Your endurance serves to motivate
us. You inspire us to keep going when we want to stop. You remind us why we embarked on this journey. We may never fully understand why you are willing to sacrifice so much for our dreams but know that our accomplishments belong to you as much as it does us.
“Little is known about your struggle, outside of select circles. The silence deemphasizes the importance of your rolein our development.”
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