Whew! Prepped for the first day of work tomorrow. Got everything done before noon.

[Aristus]

Put my outfit together. Pressed some clean khakis. Starched and ironed a clean lab coat. Polished my best pair of clinic shoes. Even washed and hung to dry a bunch of my wife’s scrubs.

I won’t be pulling clinic for this first week or so. But it’s my first day at a new job in thirteen years. I want to make a good first impression.

I’m so grateful for the love and support from my fellow Loungers. You give me the strength of soul this line of work really requires.

[a kennedy]

1. You da man Aristus.

[chillfactor]

2. You sound so prepared!

I am thrilled you are going on a new journey! Best of luck to you!

[Stuart G]

3. Good Luck and Best Wishes Always. The clinic is lucky to have you!!

[lapucelle]

4. I'm happy for you. Good luck!

[2naSalit]

5. Just goes to show...

That you do your homework!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. Best wishes, Aristus. Take care of your health as well!

[erronis]

7. Thanks for helping everyone, every way.

One of my wonderful close relatives is a doctor in NYC helping the homeless. They had been spared for several years from Covid but is now dealing with long/very long Covid.

I admire everyone doing these necessary tasks.

Hope you have good cushioning shoes! (That's my personal major concern.)

[MOMFUDSKI]

8. You aren't walking into that new job alone.

You have the entire DU crew right there with you. Have a great first day!

[democrank]

9. Onward and upward, Aristus.

Best of luck tomorrow.

[RussellCattle]

10. "Strength of soul". I like that. Doing good work again. Nice.

[fierywoman]

11. Your patients are so blessed to have you taking care of them.

[Bayard]

12. I am so impressed that you can starch and iron!

Hope the new job goes well.

[Mr.Bill]

13. I'm a pretty casual dresser.

I've rarely had a job with public contact, so I could wear Levis and Tshirts. But I somehow feel a little more comfortable when a professional is dressed for the part. My stepdaughter is an Assistant Director at a hospital, and aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, she spends a fortune on clothes. I think she dropped about $400 on the outfit she wore to her first interview.

We have a hospital in a city near here that has formal portraits of all their CEOs going back to the day they were founded. All very well dressed distinguished looking people. Except for the current clown that wore a Hawaiian shirt to his portrait sitting. (he's not Hawaiian) Very unprofessional, if you ask me.

Best of luck to you tomorrow.

[Aristus]

14. Thank you.

My mentor, the PA who trained me, practices medicine in cargo pants and an old sweater. He’s a brilliant clinician.

But I’ve always preferred to wear a shirt and tie for clinic, to show my respect for my patients. That was reinforced early in my clinical career by an amusing incident.

My first assignment was at the first primary care clinic in town to offer care exclusively to the homeless population. Prior to the opening of the clinic, my patients could usually only get primary care at a clinic that operated for around two hours, one day a week, in the basement of a church somewhere. The providers were volunteers, although I suspect that at least a few of them had been ‘voluntold’ by their superiors, and resented having to care for homeless patients.

That was the impression I got, anyway. In the absence of any regular primary care, most homeless people have to go to the emergency room for primary care issues, which they aren’t set up to do.

Whenever I have a new patient, I close the visit by offering them my card, and encouraging them to come in any time they had a primary care concern. One day, the manager of the facility hosting the clinic came back to my office chuckling a little, and told me she had found a new patient wandering around in confusion and holding my card. She asked him what the problem was, and he pointed to my card and asked: “Is he going to be my doctor now”. (I’m actually a Physician Assistant). She replied “If you want him to be, yes.”

He got even more confused, and she asked him why. “He’s……he’s……HE’S WEARING A NICE SHIRT AND TIE!” She didn’t have to explain. I understood instantly that what he meant was I wasn’t like all those reluctant providers pressed into service for homeless health care, and were waiting for their turn in the barrel to be over. I wanted to be there and I wanted to be their very own medical provider.

She and I had a nice laugh over that. But I’ve never forgotten that dressing professionally and respectfully earned this guy’s trust. I hope it made him feel like he deserved to have his own provider, just like everyone who isn’t homeless.

[sheshe2]

31. You are a good man, Aristus.

💙

[Aristus]

34. Hi, sheshe!

[debm55]

15. Good luck, Aristus.

[Aristus]

16. Thank you, deb.

[cachukis]

17. Eyes and ears. Note pad for questions at the end of the day.

[True Dough]

18. How many years

until retirement, do you figure?

Best of luck tomorrow!

[Aristus]

22. If 67 is the target age, then twelve years.

A little over halfway there.

[True Dough]

23. A little over halfway there?

Reminds me of this hit from our youth...

&ab_channel=BonJoviVEVO

[Aristus]

24. Yeah. I started practicing medicine thirteen years ago at the age of forty-two.

Twelve years to go.

[True Dough]

25. What was your previous profession, Aristus?

Good on you for having the determination to make the career change, particularly to one that is so much in demand and does a world of good.

[Aristus]

27. Before Mrs. Aristus started studying dental hygiene,

and I started studying clinical medicine, we both worked in banks. I worked as a teller, teller trainer, and a loan officer. And before that, we both worked in the retail gulag.

We both got tired of people sticking guns in our faces and demanded money. So Mrs. Aristus started looking around for a career that paid well, but didn’t come with such hazards. She decided on dental hygiene, but didn’t have any college credits.

I worked a job I hated for four years while she went to school. When she graduated and started making good money, she told me to go do what I wanted. I worked as a Medical Assistant for five years to earn the clinical hours that would qualify me for PA School.

And the rest is history.

[True Dough]

30. Seriously? You were both held up at gun point in your respective banks?

I can't blame you for bailing out on that!

[Aristus]

32. I was lucky. I was robbed by a professional.

He rushed in, flashed his gun and said no one would get hurt if we gave him the cash in the drawers. Most terrifying five or so minutes of my life. I was more scared then than during the entire time I was in the Gulf in 1991.

Mrs. Aristus wasn’t so lucky. She was robbed three times at gunpoint, the last time, it was by three scared kids with guns. They didn’t know what they were doing, they didn’t know what to do, and they were nervously pointing guns everywhere. She had to assure them that no one had alerted the cops, and to walk them through the process. She stayed calm and told them the staff would do exactly what they wanted. She got them out of there, and no one got hurt.

That was one week after I proposed to her.

Since becoming a PA, I’ve had a patient pull a knife on me just once. But other than that, the stresses of clinical medicine aren’t life threatening.

[True Dough]

35. That's some terrifying stuff!

Particularly for Mrs. Aristus! Glad you both got out of those hair-raising incidents safely.

Hopefully it's smooth sailing until retirement for you both!

[Aristus]

36. Like me with my homeless patients, Mrs. Aristus has her own favorite population.

The developmentally disabled. She has a number of DD patients whom she absolutely adores. One of them died earlier this year at only forty-six, and she was inconsolable for days. They love and trust her in return.

We have both been fortunate enough to draw priceless emotional rewards from our jobs.

[True Dough]

38. Well deserved rewards!

I'm sure if we could hear from those patients, they would sing your praises and Mrs. Aristus would get accolades as well.

[RussellCattle]

19. Good luck, Aristus.

[Drum]

20. Have a proper breakfast!

💪

[Fla Dem]

21. All the best on your new adventure!!

[rsdsharp]

26. Congratulations on the new job. It's always nice to feel you're prepared, and will look your best.

I’m retired, and rarely have occasion to wear dress shoes anymore. However, I find polishing shoes relaxing, so recently I mirror shined a couple of pairs of cap toes. They are likely to sit on a shelf for quite awhile, but they will look good doing it.

[Aristus]

28. Ex-military?

I’m ex-Army. I hated polishing boots while I was in, but now there’s something kind of soothing about shining my dress shoes. I must have about thirty pairs.

When I was in PA School, we would have to dress up every once in a while for special functions. You could always tell which of the guys were veterans, because we were the only ones who shined our shoes.

[rsdsharp]

33. No. I'm a retired attorney. But both my parents and my older brother served.

I got the basics watching my brother polish his low quarters when he was getting ready to go back after a leave.

I’ve found Saphir products make it a lot easier than using Kiwi.

[MLAA]

29. You got this!

How exciting, a new and better chapter in your book.
You are ready to rock!

[Marthe48]

37. For the work you do

you deserve all good things

[littlemissmartypants]

39. So excited for you and proud to know you.

It's a noble thing to devote your life to helping others. I know you'll be great! Enjoy the day!



❤️