June 2021

Fellow medical doctor, I was once like you, overworked and overwhelmed.

I was on the verge of burnout and in dire need of change. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted, stuck in my situation, and completely isolated and invisible in my suffering.

The combination of living with a spinal cord injury, motherhood, full-time work, and studying for fellowship exams exhausted me. I ignored the warning signs of burnout such as becoming overwhelmed, constantly worrying and stressed over small things and not sleeping well. I felt disconnected from myself and others around me. 

Yet I kept pushing through. 

It took a traumatic spinal cord injury in 2008 to transform my life.

The experience was a radical awakening. I was told that I would never walk again.

On one fine Spring Day in 2008, my life changed forever. I was walking to work when I was hit by a car at high speed. My body was flung into the sky, and as I hovered, like a slow-motion movie, a few thoughts ran through my head.