PeterSCooneyMD

Summary

• I spent 22 years in a busy private practice in Beech Grove with the greatest partners imaginable. I never intended to stay here, and it was a very humble practice, but the value of practicing with excellent partners outweighs almost all other factors.
  
  I had a bicycling accident 9-11-03 that I simply should not have survived, but did, albeit with the serious problems that come with the hypoxia and spinal cord trauma. Again, I was so fortunate to be able to practice again, and stayed with it as long as I could. Our practice was managed by a large hospital, so the over-arching focus was productivity, and I could not compete on that playing field and took a disability retirement in 2012.
  
  Surprisingly, I think retirement has actually been more difficult for me than practicing especially given the residual physical problems from my accident. I truly miss all the relationships formed through years of working in the same community. We hear plenty about financial preparation for retirement, but I don't recall reading much about preparing for the emotional let-down or the spiritual and psychological adjustments needed to thrive without the constant affirmation I got when I was practicing.
  
  It has been fun seeing where my classmates have settled, and admit to being envious of many of you. While I got a decent medical education at IUSOM, I certainly never got anything in the way of career counseling, and that's a shame. I loved family medicine, but there were so many fields I never even heard of at IU. I truly miss the comraderie we had in the 80's and 90's, but medicine has changed so dramatically. It has been so discouraging to sit on the sidelines during the Covid pandemic. Caring for others in such a critical time is what I went into medicine for, and now with my limitations, all I get to do is watch and pray. I am still honored to be a member of the second oldest and finest profession! God Bless.