The Reason Our Profession Still Has a Soul.

A recent post struck a nerve.
So many healthcare professionals reached out—not with solutions, but with stories.
Stories of 3 AM wake-ups.
Of patients who linger in their thoughts.
Of the burden that comes with caring deeply and carrying it quietly.
Let’s talk about that a little more.

There’s no CPT code for staring at the ceiling at 3:17 AM.
No RVU for rethinking a plan you already wrote down, but now feel could be better.
No checkbox for “heart still engaged, even off the clock.”
And yet… this is medicine.
This is the part no one sees.

What does a career in medicine give you?
It gives you meaning.
It gives you access to the most human moments in people’s lives.
It gives you stories that stay with you forever, good and bad.
It gives you the chance to help, to heal, and sometimes… to make just enough of a difference that someone gets another day.

But it also takes.
It takes your sleep.
It takes time from your family.
It takes mental real estate you didn’t realize you were renting out.
It takes a toll on your nervous system, especially when the outcomes aren’t clear or the decisions are heavy.
You’ll miss events. You’ll forget appointments. You’ll carry emotional weight that feels strangely out of proportion to the “routine” day you just had.

And still… we stay.
We stay because the privilege of being trusted is worth something.
We stay because even when it hurts, we know what we’re doing matters.
We stay because this is not just what we do, it’s who we’ve become.
But we also need to name it.
And normalize it.
Because while it’s noble to carry the weight, it’s also human to get tired of it.

To everyone who has woken up thinking about a patient—
You’re not alone.
You’re not soft.
You’re not broken.
You’re the reason this profession still has a soul.