What is this potential side effect of the J&J vaccine for COVID-19?
The potential side effect is a blood clot in the veins that drain blood from the brain. This is called central venous sinus thrombosis. In the vaccine-associated cases of this, platelets in blood, which are important for making clots, have been lower than normal. While …
I sat in a crowded auditorium listening to an attending at a renowned medical institution give a lecture. I didn’t know the answers, and shrouded in imposter syndrome, I avoided eye contact. The visiting medical student from Mexico answered the question, and the attending moved on. Another question came. Again, the medical student from Mexico answered. The attending chuckled and said, “OK, Cinco de Mayo,” an exaggerated emphasis on the …
Providing primary care to patients with mental illness is a challenging task that requires highly skilled and experienced practitioners comfortable with the full array of biopsychosocial problems with which these patients present. For example, understanding the side-effect profiles of psychiatric medications and their impact on problems such as diabetes and other complex endocrinopathies requires highly evolved clinical skills.
Optimally, the successful care of these patients is best provided in close collaboration …
For many years, I have treated individuals with substance use disorders. I have found this work to be both gratifying and frustrating. Part of the frustration stems from interactions with governmental agencies and families.
The families are, of course, fearful and frustrated. They are watching their loved ones “die” before their eyes and want someone to fix it. It is difficult to understand that their loved one’s brain has changed, that …
VIPIT is the medical term given to the phenomenon of developing clots in various parts of the body after certain (not all) COVID-19 vaccines. VIPIT stands for vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia, a complicated term explained simply as clotting of the thrombocytes or platelet cells in the blood vessels after receiving the COVID vaccine.
Clearly, understanding this newly evolving condition is very limited, but what we know so far is extremely concerning. …
Recently, I was talking on the phone to a physician client of mine about the COVID-19 vaccine and how thrilled I was that everyone over the age of 30 is now eligible in New York, which meant I could now schedule my own appointment.
We discussed the current market, and just when I was about to end the call by wishing him a happy National Doctor’s Day, his younger son, who …
“Keep it Simple is a bumper sticker slogan. Life during a pandemic has been anything but simple, and the holiday season presents (not the gift kind) its own special challenges. So does living alone and trying to stay humanized. In his book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a …
Indian parents are perfectionists. This is what I had come to understand and believe, even before I had the vocabulary to define it. Perfection was the expectation. Not excellent, not superb, but perfection, and only perfection. After years of reflection, I don’t take issue with the expectation of perfection, but, rather, how I perceived it to be defined for me — a well-behaved, beautiful and academically successful girl who does …
Recently, a former NFL football player, Phillip Adams, murdered Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife, his two grandchildren ages 5 and 9, an air conditioning appliance man, and critically injured a second man. The NFL player had gunned down these innocent people. And then, he left and went to his parent’s house (who lived on the same road), and after hours of the SWAT team begging this man to surrender, he …
In my medical school admissions essay, I wrote about helping at-risk kids like myself. I wanted to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist, but that wasn’t the main reason for applying. The real reason I applied was for my own personal survival. I needed to learn how to talk to doctors about my symptoms and get an appropriate level of care.
For years, my doctors told me that my illnesses and …
As I embark on my chief year in general surgery, I look forward to most is taking junior residents through operations. I am grateful to have had excellent teachers over the past five years, and I appreciate the opportunity to pay forward this mentorship. But taking what you have learned and teaching someone else turns out to be a very different challenge than learning itself! Suddenly, you realize your attendings …
Today I attempt to walk a new path in life, a path that sparkles from the sun above to guide my every move.
Step by step, I embrace the light and escape the dark shadow behind me. Slowly, I start to run as I crave harder to escape my unburdening. With the weight of sorrow on my back, I let it go and reach in front for the chamber in my …
There are endless life lessons to learn from people around us. Our friends’ opinions on what they think about a product, a certain cuisine, or how they view life not only gives us a glimpse of who they are, but also can impact our own views. As a doctor, it is always fascinating to me how two patients with the same oncologic diagnosis can have such different views of life: …
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I will speak for myself to say that I completely identified with, and fully agree with, all the sentiments shared by Dr. Klingberg in “A breakup with primary care.” Still, from my own life experiences, and a 30-year career in primary care solo practice, I have been forced to believe that these sentiments are ultimately narcissistic and self-destructive.
Yes, primary care medicine has become thankless, oppressive, cruel, …
I have been a physician for 26 years. I have been a fierce patient advocate throughout my entire career. It never occurred to me that physicians do not have the same rights of citizenship that the very patients I fight for do. I always thought I lived in a democracy. Medicine is not what it used to be. Articles relentlessly speak of physician burnout as though we are responsible for …
We first met about two years ago when she came to see me in my clinic as a new patient. I glanced through her chart and reviewed her scans and pathology reports. She had one of the worst possible kinds of lung cancers, called small cell lung cancer, that had spread to both of her lungs. Her disease was incurable, but I could give her chemotherapy to improve her symptoms …
As a physician who helps administer and analyze our medical staff’s wellness data, I have been puzzled by one consistent finding from our semi-annual physician wellness survey – the group of physicians with the highest level of distress are the mid-career physicians, those who, like me, graduated from medical school 15 to 24 years ago.
Our hospital, a community-based, semi-academic hospital, utilizes a nine-question survey to track physician’s well-being. Some of …
When a patient is dissatisfied with his or her care, he or she can consult an attorney, who will enlist a physician “expert” to determine if a doctor has deviated from the standard of care and whether that deviation caused a negative outcome. Over the past decade of reviewing cases involving medical malpractice, I have identified five categories of medical error, which has improved how I care for my patients.
1. …
I’m “blursed.” I have a loving and supportive family, an amazing wife, great friends, and that includes my dog, a career that is both secure and fulfilling, and yet there is something I carry with me that perpetually threatens to break my spirit. My fellow Reddit fans/addicts know the meaning of “blursed,” but for those that don’t, it’s one of my favorite portmanteaus – it means to be both “blessed” …
My patient is a brilliant, 30-something-year-old highly educated woman with type 1 diabetes. I’ve known her for many years, since she was a teenager. She is sweet and fun, even though she can be fierce and fiery at times. She has type 1 diabetes.
She has been living with this life-altering, life-threatening disease for many years. Even as a child, she always took charge of her life and consistently maintained her …
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