Hi Bert,
Haven't been on the board for a few years. Sorry to see your pain. In my view, one of the major mistakes physicians make is not practicing what they preach (or from my military days, leading by example.) You need time off, or as a colleague of mine would say, you need time out of harness. While you may not realize it, the absence of time off could be impacting your decision making and definitely could lead to burnout.
As an internist I tell my patients all the time about the need for work/life balance, yet up until a few years ago I wasn't practicing it myself. Then I started cross covering with an extremely well respected older colleague of mine and he told me his secret of managing a very busy and successful practice: he has been taking his retirement for the last 30 years. He works long hours yet he also takes several vacations of 1-3 weeks in length which seem to totally recharge him. His patients love him and while he phones his office each day while away he still relaxes. Please make sure you are taking care of your health (both emotional and physical). My apologies for sounding preachy and especially for being off topic yet this did start as a thread about pain management.
