Dentaltown March 2021 - 69

Another health challenge

Time to say goodbye to dentistry

On April Fool's Day, I got a call from
my ENT that the biopsy came back positive
for cancer. It appeared that they had missed
a lymph node from my first surgery. I would
require a second surgery and subsequent
chemotherapy and radiation in the middle
of a pandemic and lockdown. I was then
placed in quarantine to be safe before the
surgery, and two days later, I found out that
my grandmother had passed away.
Still in shock with all the bad news, I
managed to make it through the next surgery
and realized during my recovery that the
mental and emotional toll was far too great
for me to be able to manage my clinic to
the best of my abilities while healing. So I
made the difficult decision to sell the clinic
in which I had invested so much of myself
at great personal cost to build from scratch
and make a success.
I decided to sell the clinic myself and,
while recovering from surgery, I completed
a dozen showings before finding the right
individual with whom I was fortunate to
share the same morals and values. I was
blessed to find a buyer in the pandemic who
did not in any way take advantage of my
situation and was a pleasure to work with
during the sale process.
As my clinic sale continued, I started my
radiation and chemotherapy, which involved
33 treatments over the course of seven long
weeks, whereby I had to visit the hospital
every Monday to Friday. The pandemic
precautions made this difficult process even
more arduous; I was not allowed visitors
during my treatments and consultations and
had to face these all alone, which was not
easy but, like most challenges in life, was
not insurmountable with the right attitude.
The chemo and radiation treatments were
extremely difficult to bear with-probably
some of the most difficult and arduous
days of my life. However, as they say, this
too shall pass, and in due time it did, and
truly what didn't kill me only made me
infinitely stronger.

After years of pondering whether dentistry was for me, I was basically granted
my wish of an early release- " honorable
discharge, " if you will. Here I was, free of all
my responsibilities and worries, recovering
from some traumatic events-and at this
point, you'd think that I would've been deeply
upset about the sense of loss and purpose. In
this regard you would be incorrect.
I felt such a deep sense of relief and
release of tension-as if a great weight had
been lifted off my shoulders. Over time,
people around me noticed a great change in
my personality. I felt more relaxed, calmer,
just a better person overall. The fault was
never with my profession; the fault was that
I recognized the inner conflict, yet never had
the courage to do something about it earlier.
Unfortunately, it took a life-changing event
to forcibly thrust me into a different frame
of mind and for that-despite the pain and
turmoil-I am deeply grateful.
As I transition into a new life devoid of
handpieces and hygiene checks, I find myself
excited to explore all that is around me and
engage the sense of self that died a long
time ago as I was forced to put on a mask
and pretend to be someone that I wasn't.
The tremendous debt and commitment

required for us to reach our accreditation
sometimes buries us with the fear and shame
of moving on when we realize this path is
not for us, and my only thought remaining
is not, " Why did this happen to me? " but
rather, " Why did I not act on this sooner? "
The dark but beautiful side of facing your
mortality at an early age is that you realize
that death is the only ever-present factor
and it respects no boundaries. The sooner
we come to terms with this fact, the faster
we can embrace our inner self and take
full advantage of the precious years we
may have left.
In summary, if you deeply feel that
what you are doing goes against every fiber
in your body, spend some time to do some
soul-searching as to why you're actually there.
You will be surprised that most of us have
chosen our paths without an in-depth analysis
as to what we actually want, and hence we
are left with a deep sense of unfulfillment.
This can lead you into two paths: On one,
you realize your original sense of purpose
and your why, and can lead you to a renewed
sense of fulfilment. The other can identify
a glaring gap between your present choices
and your true need for fulfillment and realize
that on your current journey, the two will
never meet. ■

" If you deeply feel that what
you are doing goes against every
fiber in your body, spend some
time to do some soul-searching as
to why you're actually there. "

dentaltown.com \\ MARCH 2021

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2/18/21 4:58 PM
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Dentaltown March 2021

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