The woman was a pediatric ophthalmologist. For most of her career, she spent her days on her feet, examining children in her office and at the Children’s National Hospital. It was a physically demanding job. She was often tired, and from the very first days of her residency training, she became lightheaded with the hospital rounds that kept her standing for hours. This despite the fact that she wore prescription-grade compression stockings to help her throbbing varicose veins. Between patients, she often had to rest on the metal trash cans that dotted the hospital hallways. But that — though uncomfortable, and unexpected given her age — was manageable. These new pains in her back and side made patient care too difficult. That fall, she made the transition to a desk job, far away from the part of doctoring that she loved most.