SPEAR ESSAY
TRADITIONS
Melissa Platt, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
F
irst, I made it a priority not to
“sacrifice” unduly for my profes-
sion during my early years. I had
learned the mantra of work/life bal-
ance. I thought that I had hit life’s
milestones with success. I completed medical
school while maintaining a healthy relation-
ship. I married and bought a first home. I
finished residency that culminated with being a chief resident. I
started a family and began to live my dream of practicing academic
medicine. There were hiccups along the way, but nothing that I felt
derailed my life satisfaction. Twenty years passed quickly. Medicine
has treated me well.
I am a female emergency physician. I thrive in an unstable
environment. Shift work is my norm. I work days, evening, nights
sometimes not in that order. Holidays are considered part of the
schedule to be filled. I work extremely hard. I am entering the
second half of my medical career with a fondness for the first half,
but I see myself becoming more reflective about my time spent in
the world of medicine.
I selfishly thought that the sacrifice of my twenties to rigorous
studying in college, medical school and residency would be what
I regretted most. No, that didn’t seem to sit well. Then, I thought
that it must be the lost sleep that I regretted giving up the most. I
recounted the countless hours awake and performing at capacity
while the rest of the world slumbered. Surely, that would be my
biggest sacrifice. Then with deeper self-reflection, and as I now look
at my teenage son, I realize that the profession that has given me so
much has taken a sacrificial lamb: my family’s traditions.
Tradition is defined as the transmission of customs or beliefs
from generation to generation. Growing up, I remember every
summer going to the Jersey Shore with extended family for one
week of building sandcastles with my cousins, jumping the surf
and walking along the boardwalk. I remember the early Christmas
morning tradition of sitting at the top of my grandmother’s stairs
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
waiting for permission to go down into the living room to open up
presents. I also remember Grandma’s chicken soup that she made
every Sunday after church-always from scratch, always on Sunday,
always from memory. I married into a family built upon tradition.
Large family gatherings, extended family living down the street from
each other, and annual family reunions were the norm.
Now as I look at my own family, I realize medicine has tragically
taken tradition away from my family. Nothing is consistent; nothing
is traditional. I can’t remember a time when my whole extended
family could take a vacation. There is always something at work
that interferes. Holiday traditions have ceased. Christmas has been
on the 23 rd , 24 th , 25 th , or the 26 th depending on my holiday work
schedule. No children waiting at the top of the stairs; instead, Mom
is at work. Traditional meals are non-existent. No family recipes
have been passed on. I admit that I am relieved when someone else
offers to cook or, better yet, echoes, “Let’s go out.” I have no set eating
schedule and thus neither does my family. I hear my husband’s go-to
answer to his family gatherings: “She will have to check her schedule
but I will be there.” His traditions have ended as well.
My son reaps both the rewards of having a mother who is a
physician as well as the drawbacks. He has learned to be quite an
adaptable young man. He is self -reliant and never places too much
emphasis on a particular time or event, but this is at the cost of
tradition. He knows nothing of traditions; they stopped when my
profession started.
I wonder about the lasting effects of being nontraditional. Once a
tradition is lost, can it ever be reborn? Like a hidden recessive gene,
can tradition re-emerge in my son’s generation? Are there traditions
hiding from my vision only to appear in hindsight? Will the second
half of my career be too late to try to make new traditions, or will
the profession continue to sacrifice tradition? Only time will tell.
Melissa Platt, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, is an Associate Professor and Pro-
gram Director in the University of Louisville Department of Emergency
Medicine.