You're old when....

While straightening the deck chairs on my personal Titanic, I received a letter from my MD, which I'll paraphrase. "Toad, it says, bad news dude. I've been your personal physician for 37 years, but I'm hanging up my sign. At the end of April I begin my semi-retirement by transferring 7/8's of my patients to other doctors in the community. (A smarter guy might have sold the practice, just sayin'.) The remainder I will continue to serve on a concierge basis. The first to mail in their retainer stay, the rest go. In the mean time I hope to minimize your inconvenience. So long and thanks for all the fish." (I suspect he's been watching too much Royal Pains.)

Bummer. In my 20's, 30's and 40's stopping by once a decade or so worked OK for each of us. In my 50's it's been two times more per year than I'd like, and I'm soon be ramping up towards the age when people see their doctor every few weeks, just to get out of the house. When I planned on needing him most, I'll be abandoned, lost in the wilderness.

Paying up prolongs the inevitable. He wants to quit, selfishly I want him to stay. To leave now, while in good health or in several years feels like the same option. Fortunately, I live in a community where MD's are thick on the ground, so here's what I've made up my mind to do.

I want to find an MD finishing his/her residency this spring, and become their first patient. The likelihood of them knowing anything useful now is slim, but I don't ask for much now. Down the road, when they are smarter, and I'm sicker, they'll be so grateful for my being their first patient and sticking with them, they'll work extra hard to keep me alive.

If you have a better plan, let me know. I'm all ears.

Toad

Retirement Day

It has been 10 years, today or thereabouts, since I removed my shingle and retired from the affairs of the city and to the life of a country gentleman. It was one of the happiest days of my life, and I never looked back.

I believe it was easier for me than for many men because throughout my career I always worked to live, rather than lived to work. Certainly, I cared for my clients, and employers, but by the time my generation came around company loyalty was proven to be a non-existant joke, so I never, ever bought into the the notion that I was, was what I did.

Retirement is so refreshing. Some unexpected surprises: I am the only American over 10 without a cell phone. Don't have an Ipod, don't commute anywhere, and keep much better hours. Stress? A thing of the past.

Retirement is the secret of the fountain of youth.

Get out as soon as you can!
Toad