May is National Stroke Awareness Month, and I want to share my story of my dad’s journey after his strokes.
Doors open and shut during the early morning hours. I hear the drip dispensing the next dose and some muffled chatter outside the room. Several phones are ringing in all directions, and I listen to alarms going off next door. This means the heart rate is too high.
Snoring beside me, I …
While the world has spent the last two years laser-focused on the COVID pandemic, another public health threat is still lurking in the shadows: the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized since the early 1900s, yet rigorous research over the past decade has illuminated the magnitude of the threat and its implications for future infection control. More than 35 thousand patients die from antibacterial resistance every …
Medicine as art appealed to me as a child. Working with families to achieve a state of health was an admirable goal—if naïve. I only went to the physician for immunizations and obligatory school physicals during childhood. My mom employed home remedies and time if I became ill, which fortunately worked.
I had no concept of what a career in medicine involved. Over twenty-five years, I explored every avenue available to …
“At the interpersonal level, people can help to normalize vaccination as the standard among their friends and family–not by lecturing or hectoring, simply by openly sharing that they themselves are vaccinated. Health care providers also have a role to play in de-sensationalizing the issue and making discussions about COVID vaccination a more routine …
On April 12, 2022, Day One of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard civil defamation trial began. In the days that have ensued, more than 330 million viewers from the United States, Canada, and the U.K. watched the televised trial. At the core of the trial is the issue of intimate partner violence and its aftermath. Depp and Heard have each claimed to be victims of intimate …
It was supposed to be a routine 20-week ultrasound appointment. The specialist abruptly knocked and entered. The next few hours of my life went by in choppy, disconnected segments. The specialist said he was sorry. Her bones were not growing properly. Her rib cage was small. Her lungs were underdeveloped. This baby, whom I had allowed myself to love and believe in after my normal prenatal testing and ultrasounds, living …
Joint pain, nausea, dizziness, bloating, palpitations, urticaria, headache, and fatigue. Surely this must be a list of the chief concerns for each of your first eight patients for the day.
No, these chief concerns all belong to your very first patient of the day. A new patient is scheduled for a 20-minute slot.
How will you possibly get out of the room in time? How can you ever help this young woman? …
Nineteen children were killed in a mass shooting in Texas. I have barely escaped the pandemonium of the pediatric emergency department to scarf down a bowl of pasta when I hear the announcement on the breakroom TV. My stomach drops. Again? How is it possible?
I step back into the ED and immediately am called over by an agitated mother whose infant came in with respiratory distress 30 minutes earlier. Any …
I sifted through both cars, my own and my husband’s, underneath our boys’ baseball equipment, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles. The felt bag was nowhere to be found.
I was finally ready to take this bag of a dozen sweaters, some of which were my fancy cashmeres, to the dry cleaners. Why a dozen, you may ask? Well, these were essentially all the nice sweaters I owned. I waited a …
On May 14, 2022, ten people were fatally shot with three injured at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, constituting the second most deadly mass shooting this year at the time of writing. As the number of mass shootings and fatalities continues to climb each year with alarming frequency, researchers and policymakers have sought to examine the factors contributing to an increased incidence of deadly domestic terrorist …
It is too early to hear the narratives from the families of the 19 children slain this week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, near San Antonio, Texas. But narratives from the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and 16 other deadly gun violence events have just been published by Red Penguin books. From Bullet to Bullhorn is the …
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with bad news, it is easy to forget the manner in which news is reported can impact and cause harm to vulnerable individuals. The topic of suicide is one such sensitive subject, and there are guidelines for the appropriate reporting of deaths by suicide to help mitigate potential risk. Despite these guidelines, sensationalized stories about death by suicide are often splashed across …
I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the best. Skilled, talented, giving, compassionate human beings who support their patients and each other. I have been pulled up by nurses who saw more in me than I saw in myself. I have been mentored by them and am a much better nurse practitioner because of what I’ve learned from them. I’ve also had the privilege to …
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Many Americans will lose access to vital health care services in a few short months unless Congress passes bipartisan legislation already introduced in both the House and Senate.
Co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act extends waivers allowing patients with acute illnesses to receive hospital-level care at home. The waivers are set to …
Over the years, I’ve had many medical office assistants. Most were good. Some were outstanding.
Today, I’d like to tell you the story of one who was exemplary. He was never late to work. He never came in and insisted on finishing his breakfast at his desk before rooming our first patient. He was so personable that they would pour their hearts out to him while rooming patients. They would tell …
Selecting a mortgage can be daunting. Understanding the mortgage terms, the total cost, estimated property taxes and insurance, and the bottom line on a month-to-month expense can be a lot to take in.
For many individuals, utilizing a mortgage to purchase a home can lead to months of underwriting, painful discovery and disclosure of financial documents, and consistently changing deadlines. This process aims to prove that due diligence is completed thoroughly …
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It is one of the last days of September. The sun, pale and tired, is slowly surrendering the humdrum of earth to the grey, soulless air. My father and I walk to our very final medical appointment, hopeless, exhausted, and befuddled. My father’s labored breathing is the only sound that fills the silence on our trip. As we drift to the entrance, …
“If you have never heard the term ‘financial infidelity,’ it doesn’t mean you don’t know what it is. In fact, according to a recent creditcards.com survey, 32 percent of respondents have financially cheated on their partners. Both finances and cheating can be complex subjects to discuss, even with and, sometimes especially with, those …
Premature babies (a.k.a. preemies) and their families are increasingly becoming a powerful voice in society. Life in and after the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is like being dropped off a cliff. I support the preemie community from pregnancy to NICU to home and into the adult years because I had a preemie. My daughter’s story is a stunning example of a system gone wrong and why better outcomes research …
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One of the hardest questions to answer in a job interview is, “Do you have any questions for me?”
The question itself is not hard — as physicians, we can come up with plenty of questions. What makes it challenging is that we understand the timing and depth of any question we ask and can say a lot more than we want it to. We do not want to ask too …
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