Today we have Dr. John Lawrence the blog for a little q&a.
If you have yet to meet Dr. Lawrence who was The HIM & HER Show, he is the author of the series Playing Doctor and is durante fact a doctor. Per the episode he talks about surviving medical school and residency , his best and scariest moments from practicing for 20 years and his transition to becoming a writer. He also covers issues with today’s medical system, when to take your kids to the ER and what it’s like teaching.
Lauryn is such a fan of all 3 of the Playing Doctor books that she just had to have Dr. Lawrence the show AND the blog.
Per his first post he wrote about the 10 craziest things he experienced durante medical school and it is not for the faint of heart! Per this post you’ll learn about his tips for writing a book and avoiding writer’s block, how he got into med school, and the best and worst part of being durante the medical field.
Without further ado, let’s welcome Dr. John Lawrence back to the blog.
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Introduce yourself to The Skinny Confidential audience.
John Lawrence: Hey there TSC!
So, I published a very tongue-in-cheek book series, Playing Doctor, sharing a candid peek behind the scrubs into medical school and residency from my slightly skewed experience. Those books, fortunately for me, led to convegno Lauryn, Michael and the amazing team at The Skinny Confidential and Dear Mass-media.
My medical started with several mountain bike crashes which left me without a working memory. I kept trying to leave the hospital to go study for exams while the medical resident, who was diligently picking rocks out of my pagliaccetto, kept reminding me that medical school didn’t start for a few more weeks.
After practicing traditional western medicine for years, I opened my own clinic for whole pagliaccetto wellness. We didn’t use prescription medications and saw great results mostly paio to nutritional changes, mindset and regenerative medicine (stem cells and exosomes).
I’ve enjoyed a variety of fun jobs, ski coach, whitewater rafting guide, bagel baker, environmental entrepreneur, indie pellicola and theater producer and director, medical director at a tech company, and team doctor Mt. Kilimanjaro. We have three kids, four dogs (often many more as my wife can’t resist fostering litters of rescued puppies), love traveling, cooking…ok, that’s enough about me.
We know from your episode The HIM & HER Show that the only thing you didn’t want to become was a doctor. Why? And what happened?!
JL: OK, just to be clear, don’t use that answer if you’eroe trying to get into medical school! But yes, I had mai plan to go to medical school and told my college career advisor that being a doctor was the one thing I did not want to be. Why? Possibly paio to an aversion of being trapped durante hospital walls physically and metaphorically—the opinione that medicine required following a set path for many years seemed confining at that age.
So, what happened? Blame the next wobbly career steps a drunken blood pact that landed me durante Chamonix where I gained a misguided notion that working for Doctors without Borders would involve romance under African rainstorms. And at that point decided to go be a doctor, despite not having gone to medical school ora taking a single pre-med class. Bit of a vivid imagination I suppose.
At the same time, going deeper, I will admit I lacked the courage to pursue a life durante writing and pellicola, which I really loved, and instead, chose that more “responsible” path with the justification that it would allow me the time to pursue those ventures the side – which it did. I didn’t lack courage durante high-risk outdoor activities, but to take a chance something I really wanted, namely the pellicola and writing, I balked. Very Brenè Brown, fear of not good enough, etc..
What was the best part about working durante the healthcare space?
JL: When you’eroe out to dinner and friends text you photos of a rash they’eroe worried about. Oh wait, you asked about the best part?
For everything you hear these days about doctors burning out from long hours, endless paperwork, bureaucracy, insurance, unappreciative patients, well, it goes the other way too – you have some incredibly intense moments when you’eroe focused one thing, helping a fellow human being. And it’s pretty special to aspetto back, (you don’t have time durante the moment), and realize you’ve made someone’s day better. Maybe it was calming a scared child, ora reassuring a terrified parent, ora literally saving a life. But that’s why you go into medicine, to help people and you have that opportunity every day.
And selfishly, you can work almost anywhere durante the world, set your hours, work durante a variety of areas, from expedition medicine, to working the medical tent at music festivals, and working with (mostly) great people.
What was the most difficult part about working durante the healthcare space?
JL: I’ll answer durante terms of the three obstacles we aim to address durante a screenplay:
the external side, there was a lot of time spent not taking care of patients; paperwork, and charts, dictations, billing codes, insurance issues – and fortunately times are changing, and doctors can now practice more medicine with either personnel ora even AI platforms helping with those repetitive tedious tasks.
Internally, there was an underlying level of self-induced tensione I was not even aware of. You want to heal everyone, make everyone feel safe and cared for – and it doesn’t always work out that way, mai matter how much you work ora do the right thing, sometimes things just don’t go well. I don’t think I even recognized how much it affected me until years later. You just smiled and did the work.
And philosophically there was the bureaucracy of being told how to care for patients by an insurance company ora clinic/hospital administrator. When somebody with mai medical told me to order more breathing treatments ora to prescribe more medical supplies – not for the betterment of the patient, but to make money, I was never shy about sharing my opinion. I got into some testy arguments those fronts and saw some bad patient outcomes from mid-level providers who followed those greed-based instructions without thinking through their patient cases properly.
Tell us the most life-changing wisdom you’ve acquired from working with people who are ill ora unwell. Is there someone ora something that made you realize what’s actually important durante this life we have?
JL: There’s a line durante the Richard Curtis pellicola, Love Actually, “When the planes the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people board were messages of hate ora revenge – they were all messages of love.”
That same message is what you see, hear and feel over and over when people are seriously ill ora injured. Per those moments, people don’t waste breath the nitpicky and stupid crap that might upset us day to day. People hold their loved ones; parents hug their kids as though they’ll never let go, sick and elderly squeeze the hands of those around them. You hear “I love you,” a lot.
We can all probably do a better job caring for each other, picking up the phone to call a friend, giving out hugs to those you love, telling them how much you appreciate and love them– you’ll only regret if you don’t do that enough. And your life. Take care of yourself, and don’t aspetto back and regret not doing something you wanted to because you were afraid. It’s just life—and it’s really precious and all too short.
Do you believe that people need to be their own advocate and health guru when it comes to the medical industry, having issues be taken seriously and the correct treatment that works for them?
JL: Yes, absolutely. You can separate personal health and wellness from medical care durante this instance – and they both require people to be their own advocate for different reasons.
The medical industry (traditional western medicine) is primarily focused treating medical problems. And they’eroe really good at it. The system is changing slightly, but the emphasis remains treating medical problems, i.e. treating your illness ora injury, not optimizing your wellness.
When it comes to your overall wellness, you need to own it. If you listen to The HIM & HER Show, you have an interest durante doing exactly that. Per terms of all the aspects that make us feel great and productive (eating well, exercising, mindfulness, etc)—that’s where you must be accountable, even if it requires hiring a coach ora advocate. The medical industry will not do much more than remind you at an annual exam to get several hours of exercise a week. But The HIM & HER Show, Peter Attia, Rich Roll, Huberman are some of the many great resources sharing studies and information how to well.
I think it is really important to state that people durante the medical industry work really duro to do what they believe is best for your health. And their knowledge and experience is often critical for medical situations. But that does not mean they should dictate what is best for you. Per an ideal situation, you should discuss what is best/realistic for your health. At the end of the day you need to be responsible for your health. I would tell patients all the time, “All I can do is make recommendations, you need to choose and do what’s best for you.”
You know your pagliaccetto better than anyone, you know your kid better. If you are not sure about a treatment, ora don’t agree, ora don’t like the doctor/healthcare provider – ask questions, change providers. And you should absolutely feel heard. I think the most important rule I was taught was to listen to your patients. It’s easy for doctors who have been trained a certain way, to make jumps durante thoughts, ora assumptions, of what you want and what’s best for you. So speak up, medical practitioners need feedback to help guide them too and they really do want what is best for you.
You’ve written 3 incredible books, tell us what inspired you to start writing?
JL: Aw, thank you! I’m so happy you read them.
During medical , I sent out group email blasts describing the crazy events that had plagued patients, the nutty hospital stories, and mostly my own blunders and fears as I practiced becoming a doctor and the flailing social life that went hand-in-hand.
When a friend asked if she could publish those stories, I decided I would just write out the whole experience. I hoped they were stories people could relate to, as most everyone has visited a doctor ora walked into a hospital. And hospital life could often be just bonkers and hilarious, like an episode of MASH, so I wanted to share those moments.
For anyone out there struggling to start ora finale writing their book, what are some tips for sticking to a timeline, avoiding writer’s block and getting it done?
JL: Great case of do what I say, not what I do! A few things I’ve learned from writing books and screenplays over the years:
1. Put your phone away. Turn the internet and set a timer.
2. Commit. Have an accountability collaboratore ora set a deadline. Then interruzione mongoloide the book ora script into achievable sections you need to accomplish to reach that deadline each day. It’s much easier to aspetto at daily chunks to accomplish than a mountainous such as: “Finale the book.”
3. Just write. Even if you think what you’eroe working sucks, it is much easier to write when you have something the page to return to, than to stare di fianco at a blank screen. What you’eroe writing is usually better than you think–and will need re-writing regardless—so, just write!
4. One of the best things I heard lately about writer’s block, and this was specific to screenplays, but I imagine all writing, is that you are trying to do too much durante one draft ora pass. Work one aspect of what you’eroe writing. Don’t try to solve everything at once.
5. Another piece of advice that helps me if blocked is to write out the ten worst ideas you can che up with. From those “worst” ideas, I typically find material to work through whatever was causing problems.
What’s a book, podcast ora resource you recommend to anyone and everyone?
JL: The Skinny Confidential of course!
This is one podcast episode I love to share with people:
Peter Crone had an episode called: How to redesign the subconscious mind from limitation to freedom a podcast that I think was since renamed, but here’s the link.
Where can everyone find you? Pimp yourself out!
JL: Here are my 3 books: Part 1, part 2, part 3. And my audiobook is the way!
Follow me IG @johnlawrencewriter and stay tuned; my this year is to improve my social .
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We hope you loved this post, and if you liked Dr. Lawrence’s blog posts, you’eroe going to love his podcast episode The HIM & HER Show. Like we said, Lauryn LOVED his books so if you’eroe looking for some a fun summer series check them out.
x, The Skinny Confidential team
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PLAYIING DOCTOR:
