Frank Cadwell:  

I'm obviously new to CM. Not sure I'll stay. High School was not a happy time for me. I do remember some friends with great fondness. After HS, I went on the the U of M. I started out in Math, which I still enjoy. In my third year I changed to Pre-Med. A life changing event was involvement with a program through the University YMCA called Project Motivation, where college students are paired with grade school students for a year. During late HS and the first years of college, I had a serious girl friend, Shelly Wooly. (Forgive me if I've forgotten the correct spelling. 'E' before the 'Y'?) She was a wonderful woman, but I did not treat her well. She finally cut me loose. I hope she's had a wonderful life. Another important paired event in my life was the discarding of my parent's religion and finding the Society of Friends. On my first visit, a man in his 80s sat down next to me after the meeting and encouraged me to avoid the military draft. I went on to date, then marry a woman named Nikki Narveson Schulz. After finishing undergraduate studies, Nikki and I went to Washington D.C. for 9 months and I worked for a Quaker lobby group, the Friend's Committee on National Legislation -- still dear to me. In December of that year, I was notified that I was admitted to Medical School. Four years of Medical School at U of M, Minneapolis. Then three years of internal medicine residency at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Nikki and I then moved to Ashland Wisconsin and I started a solo practice. (On-call 24/7. This is not a good idea, folks.) I was finally able to recruit 2 more internists. Nikki's and my marriage fell apart. Equal fault on both sides. I wish we'd been better people to each other. But the dissolution of my first marriage led me to the long-lasting love of my life, a nurse (just like the soap operas) named Kristi Shaw. Dating was rough during the disintegration of my first marriage. And my medical partnership also fell apart. One of my two partners and I didn't get along. Kristi and I married. We went out to Maine and covered the practice of an internist in Ellsworth for a year while he took a year to do additional studies in geriatrics. We loved the geography of Maine. We were a half hour drive to Mount Desert Island and spent many wonderful hours hiking and biking the trails. But medical care was poorly funded. Nursing salary was 49th lowest out of 50 states, so all the best nurses left. Kristi would come home after trying to care for 20 patients on a shift and cry. We moved to Iowa City. Kristi worked on the Cardiology unit, following he...Expand for more