Celebration and Grief-Layers of Emotion
Celebration and Grief In 1992, I completed a medical toxicology fellowship. One of the faculty at my residency training program was a mentor who was a toxicologist, so I decided I wanted to do the same. I loved the idea of being good at a specific subject and I thought knowing about snakes, spiders, poisonous plants and mushrooms would just be very cool. I had no idea about the relationships I would form. I also had no idea that most of the patients would be overdoses and not as cool as I expected! But I have no regrets. It is a wonderful specialty. Last week we had our annual meeting in Washington, DC and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the physician toxicology organization, the American College of Medical Toxicology. As a founding member and past president, I volunteered to emcee the gala dinner. I think it was the most difficult presentation of my life. I have been in front of hundreds of people and have spoken in multiple countries, but these are the hero