After 23 years of school and training I have accepted a position as a family practice doctor! After looking at several locations, James and I have decided on... Neenah, Wisconsin!
Neenah is close to Appleton, Wisconsin. It's a town of about 25,000 people (Appleton is about 70,000 people). It's about a 3 hour drive north of Barrington and our families.
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| The general location |
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| Neenah/Menasha/Oshkosh/Appleton area |
Neenah is located on the shores of Lake Winnebago, the largest lake in Wisconsin and one of the largest freshwater inland lakes in the United States. There's lots of outdoor activities like beaches for swimming, boating, hiking/biking trails, etc.
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| A googled picture of Lake Winnebago... |
We love it in Des Moines and would love to stay here. However, especially while pregnant with Jack, we realized it was just a little too far away from our families in the Chicago suburbs. While we do like to visit Chicago, we wanted to avoid the traffic, congestion, and expense that comes with living in the Chicagoland area and go for a location that was a little more rural. Also, the market for physicians in the suburbs is pretty saturated, and I wanted to be able to practice medicine in a smaller community. I have always loved Wisconsin so that's where we focused our search.
I did a preceptorship in the clinic I'm joining last October and really enjoyed the Neenah/Appleton area as well as that specific clinic and the doctors working there. At the time there was no job opening in that particular clinic, so I shelved my love of Appleton and looked at a few other locations in Wisconsin. However, a recruiter for the clinic contacted me a few months ago and invited me to interview. I was very excited! The physicians there were thinking about the future and the possible addition of another practitioner because the practice is growing. I guess my name kept coming up from when I worked with them last year and they were interested in adding me to the practice. Last week James, Jack, my mom (to watch Jack) and I went up to Neenah for my interview. I really enjoyed the interview and James got to meet my possible future colleagues as well as get a tour of the area. Yesterday a formal offer came from the group, and I'm excited to accept it!
It's a 4 day a week position, so I can be both a mom and a doctor. That was important to me in a future job. Call duties are very reasonable (one call every two weeks), and I'll only have to work about 5 weekends a year. Overall it is a great opportunity for me, and I think our little family will really enjoy living there!
It's a 4 day a week position, so I can be both a mom and a doctor. That was important to me in a future job. Call duties are very reasonable (one call every two weeks), and I'll only have to work about 5 weekends a year. Overall it is a great opportunity for me, and I think our little family will really enjoy living there!
A little trivia about Neenah. The Neenah Foundry makes most of the iron grated products across the United States, like manhole covers and tree grates. For example:
Pay attention, now you'll see those manhole covers and think of us in Neenah!
The only problem with the location is that it's about an hour south of Green Bay. We will not become cheeseheads! And Jack will be raised a Bears/Cubs fan, don't worry. In fact, hopefully he's already developed this "instinct"...
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I am so excited for you and for us! You will be so close! And because your parents are members of Little Sweden, you can go use their facilities anytime (get their membership card...) And maybe you'll come visit us during our May week. Now, you need to get a 3 bedroom house or apartment so we can visit comfortably. :-) Love you all so much! Can't wait to see you again. Aunt Mary
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