The Secret Lives of the Rheumatologist

Perhaps that is why rheumatologists are often overthinkers. Our work demands a high tolerance for ambiguity, a relentless compulsion to synthesize and resynthesize differential diagnoses, and the ability to mentally model immune pathways and musculoskeletal biomechanics in real time. If you had to explicitly write a job description for all that we do, you would probably say that the only capable candidate would be Clark Kent (aka Superman).

2. Secret Identities at Home

Even then, these secret identities at our workplaces do not encapsulate the most important parts of our lives. The Rheum After 5 series in The Rheumatologist offers a window into the unexpected dimensions of our colleagues. We meet rheumatologists who are photographers, fiction writers, marathon runners, classical musicians and community volunteers. Their stories are inspiring, and still these profiles are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the lives and identities of rheumatologists.

At this point, we can’t avoid this conversation so let’s just get through it. The words work-life balance get tossed around a lot, but, in my opinion, the phrase is often more a marketing slogan than an actually attainable goal. The reality of the balance is far more complicated, and it almost seems mythical sometimes. The many identities we take at work often spill into the identities we assume at home.¹

Maintaining dual—or triple or quadruple—identities is no small task.

Let me give an example. One day, my then 4-yearold, oldest daughter was playing doctor with her toys. Surprisingly, she didn’t pick up a stethoscope or a reflex hammer. Rather, she took a folded piece of paper and pretended like she was typing. To her eyes, that is what a doctor does—write notes and manage inboxes. I had worked hard to keep that aspect of my life, the endless clinic notewriter, a secret from my kids, but kids seem to know everything.

It was a clarifying moment to me about the elusive work-life balance. Achieving work-life balance requires secret identities that we can toggle on and off. In other words, to be present in one role, we must necessarily be absent in another. Unlike those secret identities at work, there is little room for overlap at home where our domestic identities take precedence.

Still, these identities seem to blend into one another. I cannot be the rheumatologist (or the allergist for that matter) that I am without referencing the person I am at home. I know how much it means to be able to hold kids in my arms without pain, and I feed those insights into empathic dispositions in clinic. As watchers of Hannah Montana know, even Miley Stewart is touched by her pop star alter ego.