Man, I absolutely love the holiday season!!!
There's always so much happiness, cheer, and love spread everywhere I look during this time of the year. Whether I'm at work, at home, or out in the community doing who knows what, everyone seems to always be in such a great mood. Because I had a lighter work schedule after my most recent inpatient stretch ended a couple of weeks ago, I had a good amount of time to get into the holiday spirit and to reflect on the blessed life I live. I also got some much-needed time off from work to visit family and friends that I hadn't seen in months. 😊
Even after the holidays are over, my first week back at work will be relatively light and will be a perfect runway to ease me back into the fellowship grind. Can't say the same for the week after that though. From the looks of it, it's going to be a rough one. 🥴
But you know what? I'll be able to handle it because by that time, I'll officially be six months into my first year of fellowship! 🥹
At the time of my last post, I was in the middle of my two-week inpatient stretch and was just trying to push through my last inpatient week before the holiday season started. I happened to be the only fellow covering both the general nephrology service and the nephrology consult service and as you can imagine, it was pretty busy. What made it especially busy this time around was that we were trying to work Christmas miracles by safely getting kids out of the hospital so that they could spend the holidays at home with loved ones.
While it was quite a demanding week of work overall, there were some notable highlights. One highlight was going out to dinner with my co-fellows and our division director after one of my shifts. As tired as I was, it was nice to spend some time outside of the hospital with them in a relaxed setting. Another big highlight of the week was being able to work with one of my former co-chiefs from UNC who happened to be working in the NICU that same week! She missed working with me so much that she kept paging me for consults just so she could keep hanging out with me. At least, that what I'm telling myself. She may say otherwise 😂
After knocking out that week of inpatient service, I spent the weekend celebrating my wife's birthday and hanging out with my mom who came into town for a family friend's birthday celebration. My wife and I enjoyed a couple of dinner outings and explored some of what Atlanta's nightlife had to offer. I also got her some comfortable Lunya pajamas that she absolutely loves. With what they were charging me for those, these pajamas better last forever. 🙃 The only wrinkle that weekend was that I got a flat tire in my brand new car. Yeah. It was INCREDIBLY annoying. Thankfully, I got a spare placed pretty quickly and got my tire plugged up in a couple days at no cost. Shoutout to AAA and my auto repair shop!
I spent the following week working several clinic shifts in the peritoneal dialysis, transplant, and chronic kidney disease clinics. I also worked a couple more night call shifts, one of which required me to come into the hospital after-hours to obtain consent for continuous dialysis for a kid who needed it started urgently. 🫠 When I wasn't actively caring for patients, I was helping organize a surprise baby shower for one of my co-fellows, that of which she really appreciated.
I also hung out with some fellows in other divisions at a fun holiday kickback, that of which kicked off my holiday break!
My wife and I spent a portion of our holidays in Atlanta where we not only watched football games and Christmas movies together, but also had a nice Christmas brunch with her side of the family and exchanged gifts with them. We then flew to Virginia where we spent several relaxing days with my side of the family. We all played so many competitive games against each other and laughed so much that our ribs hurt! 😂
We then flew back to Atlanta for New Year's (and for a random night call shift that I had to work; thankfully it was a manageable one 🙌🏿) where we watched some more football and counted down the end of 2023 with a bunch of friends, one of whom was conveniently celebrating a birthday on New Year's Eve! 🥂
Now that I'm back in my home and comfortable, I've taken advantage of the uninterrupted time I have to sit back and reflect on the past year. As I sit here typing out this post, I'm finding myself happily running through the numerous fond memories I've collected over the course of this past year.
My year kicked off in D.C. where I simultaneously counted down the end of 2022 while watching the wild and exciting conclusion of the Ohio State-Georgia playoff game. The Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl this year was also one of the wildest Super Bowl games I've ever watched! And while we're talking about sports, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the improbable and historic run to the Final Four that the men's basketball team at UMiami achieved this year during March Madness, with the women's basketball team also making a historic run to the Elite Eight during this year's tournament!
I got the opportunity to travel to a bunch of cool places like Cabo, Los Angeles, San Diego, Barcelona, and Ibiza, the latter two of which were destinations for my 30th birthday celebration! I attended a couple of conferences in Atlanta and D.C., and got the opportunity to present a couple of posters describing one of the initiatives my co-chiefs and I started in our program at UNC, as well as my work in implementing voter registration processes in our primary care continuity clinic. I then made the inevitable transition from chief resident at UNC in North Carolina to pediatric nephrology fellow at Emory University/Children's Hospital of Atlanta. It was the first time that I had moved to another state since moving from Miami, FL to Winston-Salem, NC in 2015. Crazy, right?
I was named a recipient of the American Society of Nephrology's 2023 Loan Mitigation Pilot Program. One of my mentors and I published a paper in the journal of Pediatric Nephrology. I'm actively learning how to become a pediatric nephrologist with each passing day. I watched my little sister graduate from high school and transition to college. For the first time in four years, I got the chance to once again experience the magic that camp for kids with chronic illnesses creates. I saw Beyoncé in-person for the first time ever and experienced the best concert that I've ever been to. I finally sold my old car of eight years and bought myself a much-needed new car! I made it to the playoffs in two of my fantasy football leagues.
Three students were successfully awarded The 2023 Desire To Inspire Scholarship, and we are currently fundraising for The 2024 Desire to Inspire Scholarship. The Black Man, M.D. Merchandise Store and the LifeSavers page of the blog were both revamped. Two new sections were added to the blog (Gifts For Students & Professionals In Healthcare & Media Features). I'm hopeful that I can continue to find creative ways to further improve the blog throughout this upcoming year!
While a lot happened in my life, there was much, much more that happened in the world over the course of 2023. I'm not ABC News, so I'm not going to get into the weeds of everything…but I do want to highlight several of the big events that occurred just to remind you of how consequential of a year it was.
From the continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war to the start of both the Sudanese Civil War and the Israel-Hamas war, we have been witness to a ridiculous amount of bloodshed this year. Not only that, but scores of innocent people of all ages have been displaced, injured, or killed as a direct result of the unconscionable actions that have been taken during the course of these wars. There have been devastating natural events such as the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that killed tens of thousands of people in February, and the wildfires that scorched over 17,000 acres of land and killed over 100 people in Hawaii in August. As for the existential threat of climate change, July was the hottest recorded month on record for global average surface air temperature. 😵💫
I bet you didn't know that India overtook China as the most populous country in the world in April. Then there was the matter of the Chinese “spy balloon” that captivated America back in February, which didn't help ease the deepening tensions between China and the United States. However in November, Chinese president Xi Jinping did visit America for the first time since 2017. Donald Trump made history by being the first former U.S. president to have ever been charged with a crime, as well as the first to face federal criminal charges. The fiasco of selecting a House speaker (it took 15 tries to finally select a speaker), subsequent short tenure of Kevin McCarthy, and ultimate ousting of him in October was something that deserved its own reality TV series on Bravo. Can't forget to mention that a member of the House, George Santos, was expelled from Congress. Lol.
Several banks (Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank) collapsed between March and May, the events of which were billed the most consequential U.S. banking crisis since 2008. There were colossal strikes that occurred, including the WGA clash with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over contract terms, the SAG-AFTRA strike, and the United Auto Workers strike. The Titan submersible tragically imploded in the depths of the ocean in June. Damar Hamlin collapsed on national TV during the Bills-Bengals game in January and was miraculously resuscitated. “Barbenheimer” was a thing. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's relationship took pop culture and the NFL by storm. Jonathan Majors was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment in his domestic violence trial and singlehandedly crippled the future plans of Marvel Studios. King Charles was coronated. Abortion services have continued to be incredibly difficult to access in multiple states as a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12, giving animal rights advocates a crucial win, but in the same breath limited the protections of the LGBTQIA+ community, struck down affirmative action, and struck down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans in three separate cases. 😒
Artificial intelligence technology has been on the rise and its influence is increasingly being felt in our everyday lives, for better or for worse. Sam Altman was shockingly fired as CEO of OpenAI and reinstated as CEO within a 72-hour time frame in November. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in a blockbuster deal in October, despite the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block the transaction. In that same month, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried went on trial and was found guilty on all seven charges he faced while the CEO of Binance (Changpeng Zhao) resigned from his position and was charged with money laundering violations in November. Tiktok continue to surge in popularity and scrutiny, leading to the banning of the app on federal devices in multiple countries across the world, including the U.S. Oh and how could we forget Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and his subsequent rebranding of the app to X?
As for breakthroughs in healthcare, the FDA approved CRISPR as a method of treatment for patients with sickle cell disease aged 12+ in December. There was substantive progress made in vaccine development and treatment for malaria, tuberculosis, and RSV. The first face and eye transplant was completed this year, and there were improvements made in xenotransplantation over the course of the year. And in May, the World Health Organization declared the end of the the COVID-19 global emergency.
In the midst of all those events, we lost A LOT of celebrities and influential people this past year including Matthew Perry, Andre Braugher, Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Raquel Welch, Lisa Marie Presley, Lee Sun-kyun, Ellen Holly, Norman Lear, George Brown, Richard Roundtree, The 45 King, Michael Gambon, Jimmy Buffet, Clarence Avant, DJ Casper, Angus Cloud, Tony Bennet, Jim Brown, Jerry Springer, Lance Reddick, Fred White, Gangsta Boo, and Rosalynn Carter. Those are just some of the ones I recognize to some degree. If you're really interested in seeing who else passed away, just click here.
So as you can clearly see, 2023 was a hell of a consequential year. Many of the events that took place this year will have far-reaching implications for decades to come. And again, the events listed were just some of the big ones. So many other things happened in the world, but I'm not getting paid to recap world events so you'll have to do your own research if you want to learn more about them.
Now that I've effectively reflected upon and summed up 2023, here's to a prosperous and fruitful New Year! I get the feeling that 2024 is going to be another consequential year for my life, the nation, and the world as a whole. I just really hope that there is more positivity that comes out of it than negativity! 🙏🏿
“The future is always all around us, waiting, in moments of transitions, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.” – J. Michael Strazynski
– Black Man, M.D.
References:
- https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/12/28/24003198/10-good-things-that-happened-in-2023
- https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-events-that-defined-2023-visualized/
- https://indianexpress.com/article/world/2023-top-world-events-9073880/
- https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2023
- https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20231219-ten-major-events-that-shaped-business-in-2023
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-biggest-health-and-medicine-stories-of-2023/
- https://ew.com/celebrity/stars-we-lost-in-2023-celebrity-deaths/
- https://www.kare11.com/article/news/year-in-review/major-events-of-2023/507-5293248b-ae87-45db-bdf5-f497f7945dc6