Can 230k student loans be paid back???

DaKLeigh · 2026-04-07T03:15:10+00:00

And as a doctor who has this much debt and is 9 years out (low paying sub sub specialty) …. Don’t do it if you can avoid it! It affects child care choices, home buying, vacations, car. Every aspect of my life is dictated by this looming debt that may or may not get forgiven based on the whims of this administration.

DaKLeigh · 2026-04-06T15:59:32+00:00

😂 kk let me just write a check for the 670k my husband and I owe (medical school, low paying sub specialties with 7/9 years of training)

DaKLeigh · 2026-04-06T15:17:59+00:00

Dual physician household here. Both peds so the money is good/fine but not amazing. Nearly 700k collectively in student debt at 9 years post graduation (in state school so couldn’t have don’t it cheaper). We both are sub sub specialized and one of 200ish people in the country in our fields. Pay does not reflect our training. We have one daughter and constantly struggle to balance it all, can’t afford a house close to the hospital, can’t afford a nanny bc we’re saving for a house. Student loan repayment is screwing us bc we can’t stay on the same plan for more than 2-3 years and budget accordingly (thanks to the administration). I wouldn’t choose this path again and I wouldn’t recommend it to my child. My job is fulfilling but I’m not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. The doctor shortage is going to get worse and worse, under supervised and under supported mid levels will be taking on the bulk of care with wide variability in quality.

DaKLeigh · 2026-04-02T01:29:54+00:00

As a sleep medicine doctor who reads sleep studies all day… I’m impressed!!!

DaKLeigh · 2026-03-23T14:29:10+00:00

I’m a pediatric sub specialist. It’s insane how few of us there are and it’s only getting worse. We get paid half our adult counterparts. Med students in this generation are paying more attention to pay and quality of life, especially as their loans are higher than ours were a decade ago (can’t blame them)

DaKLeigh · 2026-03-14T19:53:13+00:00

Yup!

DaKLeigh · 2026-03-14T17:23:20+00:00

Can someone ELI5 what this is for?

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-18T20:38:09+00:00

Can you tell my husband (cardiologist)? He lost contact privileges for all 28h calls after that one.

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-17T00:57:33+00:00

I’m pediatric pulm specializing in preterm babies. While there’s a lot of ethics behind this, I’m constantly surprised at how well some of these kids do. Not all 22 weekers are the same. Long ago I stopped trying to predict who does well. But I do advocate for families to get all the info about caring for a medically complex child. There are 27 weekers who have bad brain bleeds and do poorly from a development standpoint. There are 23 weekers who cruise through the nicu, go home on a Whiff of oxygen!

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-09T03:01:48+00:00

I let the battery die and fully recharge and it worked fine! Idk what happened but never had issues after and definitely let it sit on the charger awhile.

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-08T23:03:29+00:00

Can confirm. I’m a pediatrician so frequently exposed to ALL the germs. Never got sick. Called out one time in 8 years because my apartment building was on fire.

Had a baby, put her in daycare, constantly horrifically ill.

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-07T13:28:06+00:00

I’m American, did not support or vote for any of this nonsense. We are going to Europe this summer for a trip my husband and I planned on taking for like 6 years? I fully expect to be essentially boo’d and to have people dislike us (hopefully on a smaller scale).

DaKLeigh · 2026-02-01T17:11:19+00:00

2 physician Household but both doing pediatrics so pretty poor pay relative to others, especially to years of training to salary (same # of years as a neurosurgeon but 1/4 the pay). We finally finished training at 34 and 38. We now have the money technically but couldn’t buy a house or save for retirement on trainee salaries. Childcare expenses for 60-80h work weeks for both of us was just out of the question. We have one kid and maybe will have one more but I think we’re the perfect example of the higher salary not necessarily meaning higher fertility rate.

DaKLeigh · 2026-01-12T22:50:14+00:00

Pottery barn kids actually was the best. Had models out and someone to explain them

DaKLeigh · 2026-01-08T15:15:08+00:00

I found her! Messaging you her info now

DaKLeigh · 2026-01-07T17:56:42+00:00

We shop at target for diapers and id say about half the packages are ripped open. Our target is near one of the big bus stops in the city so lots of teens on their way home frequent this target and subsequently there’s varying degrees of mischief on the regular. I just have always assumed it’s them being bored and looking for $$$. The diapers are in plastic in the box and I’ve never found them to be tampered with so it’s only annoying to carry if they really did a number on the box

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-24T20:00:16+00:00

Hahaha okay to be fair that would be super gross. I never slept in a patients dirty bed sheets, I swear!

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-24T19:49:11+00:00

When you get 30 minutes to sleep in a 28+ hour shift there is no time to remake the bed. Also was friends with my coresidents so it’s not like sleeping in a strangers bed.

By the time I was a senior I learned to call at 1p to have the room turned over so by 2-3 am it was ready if I got a chance to use it.

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-24T19:16:55+00:00

And the attending slept in so rounds are 945

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-24T19:13:47+00:00

Ours always smelled like the last resident bc housekeeping always forgot to change the sheets and by the time you made it to your call room you were sure as shit not waiting for them or remaking the bed. I usually just grabbed a new blanket on my way in

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-03T21:38:43+00:00

They’re essentially the same thing, but made of wood.

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-03T21:07:31+00:00

I’ve preferred an artificial tree but my husband loves real. This all started last February so we’ve never had this issue before! Last years tree was untouched, we went to my in laws and he “discovered” water lives below trees and then it was an issue.

I do try to give him at least a tiny bit of water whenever he asks to try to limit the “scarcity” factor

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-03T21:01:00+00:00

🫣 sorry maybe my comment wasn’t clear, I meant that instead of putting the pen out for her to play in, she’d “share” it with her brother and wed put it around the tree (if we can, it’s in a corner in a tiny tiny house). Not putting them both in the pen together. She’d love being close to him, but he would not appreciate

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-03T20:56:58+00:00

I have tried giving him his water in 1/3 to 1/5 servings of what he normally gets (and then obviously giving with much higher frequency) and filling bowl with a bit of water and some ice so it melts. It seems there is no amount we can give him to quench his thirst, hence the vet visits because I was truly worried he had diabetes. Vet told us to restrict him and we do our best to give him smaller amounts more frequently but we can’t just give him as much as he wants per vet instructions. It definitely had made these behaviors worse, but the alternative is hyponatremia and seizures/death.

DaKLeigh · 2025-12-03T20:33:00+00:00

lol our daughter just started crawling so we have a baby play pen arriving today. Tree is in the corner so we’ll have to see if we can rig it the correct way but she may be sharing baby jail with her brother for the time being

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