A year and a half! It's been a year and a half since John was hired with the Beaumont Dearborn OB/Gyn residency. We were sitting on the bed a couple of days ago, and the whole time when John was unemployed (also a year and a half) seems like a dream. Us living in that apartment for nine months? Selling our Dexter house? The hearing? Meeting with the lawyer? Okay, maybe it was more of a nightmare.
Wow, I went down that rabbit hole. Maybe it's because it's 2 a.m., and I'm on steroids ;-)
Let's start over. A year and a half! Never would John have imagined that he could like a job so much. For years I was telling him to try academics, and he always said the same thing: "I don't have the patient for it, Aris. I want to get in, do what I need to do and get out." So what a surprise that when he had three options for jobs (the military, Geisinger, and Beaumont), he chose Beaumont (the one that actually came through last).
This past week, the fourth years graduated which means they are doctors now. Yes, they have boards in a year which they need to pass, but they'll spend this next year working as real doctors, collecting cases for those boards. John and I tried to remember John's own graduation, but we remembered nothing except the award that John received for laparoscopic surgery.
Most OB/Gyns are women now, quite a change from the 50/50 percentage of John's time, and the graduating class was four women. GORGEOUS women, I might add. I came to know of them very quickly, as John spent a great deal of time with them. This is how it works: in clinic, if they find surgeries, they can schedule them with John (which they regularly do), and if he finds women who need surgeries, he allows them to do the cases. ALL of them are done under John's supervision, and as Rusna (one of the third years said at one point), he waits patiently on the side, watching them make mistakes and steps in only when they finally admit they can't do something.
John is a niche physician. He believes in what is best for the woman, and a lot of what is best is old-time practice. Using forceps instead of calling a c-section, and performing vaginal hysterectomies instead of robotic or abdominal ones. The residents are hesitant to do some of these things simply because they involve some risk, or because they are more difficult to do, but John encourages them to learn. After all, the robots aren't staffed in the late hours and aren't even found at every hospital, and there isn't always time to call a c-section.
When John first hired on, I reminded him of a couple of goals he could have, but the one he remembers best is to shoot for earning the "Faculty of the Year" award at residency graduation. There's some competition seeing as the residency has hired new people over the past year in addition to John. But John kept it in the forefront of his mind, trying to keep the residents' needs first--not always easy for a man who has built his work life around his running, family and sleeping schedules!
The program had a theme of "yellow" which fortunately Shari Maxwell, the residency director, told John. So Glo and I went shopping and found him a shirt and tie and pocket square to wear with his blue suit (staying as far away as possible from Michigan colors for him), and I picked my yellow shirtdress (which was one of FOUR yellow dresses I just happened to have).
The night before the graduation, John was talking about how Shari deserves the faculty award, but that she won't get it because she has to be firm with the residents. I then asked him if anyone was doing anything for Shari at graduation, he sent out a text, and we discovered (to my horror) that nobody had thought of her, or the residency secretary/coordinator. So, bright and early Friday morning, I headed into South Lyon to the florist that opened the earliest. I walked in, explained what I needed (presentation bouquets in as much yellow as possible), and explained the situation (and why it was so last minute). Well let me tell you, Heavenly Father must have sent me there, because Sylvia, my floral arranger (and possible owner of the store), put together the most lavish, gorgeous, beautiful bouquets and attached beautiful silver ornaments free-of-charge to them. And while I was waiting to pay, she was pulling together another bouquet (I figured she had another customer coming), but she turned around and told me it was for ME! I seriously could've cried. All she asked was that I write her a good review...which I did before I even pulled out of the parking lot ;-)
I rushed home, changed, drove to the hospital with the flowers, and we sat down for the program.
My heart sank when the "Faculty of the Year" award went to another physician who was hired three months after John. He had all these inside jokes with the residents, and they spoke about how available he always is. Really, after being passed over for callings in our ward, and not feeling like we have any friends in the area, this was kind of the nail in the coffin.
Probably ten other awards were given, mostly to the graduation residents, and John appropriately gave out the "minimally invasive surgical" award. He spoke about how important it was to do what was best for the patient and always try to do a transvaginal hysterectomy. In fact, John had had t-shirts made that said "KEEP CALM AND TVH ON" which turned out to be a HUGE hit for the graduating residents...and everyone in the auditorium! It was one of the cutest moments of the afternoon.
Finally, there was the last award, and I saw in the program that it was the CREOG National Faculty Award for Excellence in Resident Education. It's actually given out by the national association for OB/Gyn (and the winners are published in the green journal). It's wasn't hard to realize that it was being given to John when Rusna spoke about the winner being given the moniker "The Forceps King". This is what she wrote:
"Hi again! Let's keep the celebrations going with our next award, the 2021 CREOG National Faculty Award. Every year CREOG, or the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology recognizes the contributions of faculty for their excellence in teaching residents.
Where do I begin with our nomination for 2021?! This faculty member constantly reminds the residents of our worth and what we bring to this hospital. He sees our talents and abilities, bringing out our best qualities. His confidence is inspiring, and he is such a cool guy! He does't mind calmly waiting while we painstakingly figure out our way in the OR because he can fix whatever extra work we may cause. Most importantly, he has a commitment to reviving practices that are now considered novel. He teaches us the beauty of these techniques so they are not a lost art form for the generations to come. I only hope we can follow in his footsteps.
It was overwhelming. To think where John had been sitting just two years earlier, being told how worthless he was with people trying to take away his ability to be a doctor forever. As he said, "From zero to hero, I guess."
He had already kind of given the residents his farewell speech, so he just accepted the award and moved on. Looking back, he probably could have spoken about how much it meant to him, but I know nobody in that auditorium could really know no matter what he said.
I'm so proud of him, and I'm proud of those four women who are partly where they are because of John's efforts. Now on to the next year!
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