Cardiologists with national reputations were available at a hospital just an hour away. I had connections there and could get what I was sure would be better care for my mother than she would receive in the small hospital where she had been taken following a heart attack in her office. But what if she died on the way? At 67, she had a full life and enjoyed her work …
Scared to death and learning to trust
She was dead when we walked in the room. Lungs ventilated, kidneys dialyzed, on pressors to maintain enough tension within her blood vessels to keep blood traveling to her brain and with a tentatively beating heart, but dead, nonetheless. The microbes had done their damage. Necrotic fingertips and toes curling and black, contractures sharply flexing her wrists and ankles from edematous compartments, damage to organs both known and yet to …
Did we do right by her? Did we do right by her family?
Narcissism is a term that has roots in Greek mythology, and as the story goes, a nymph named Echo fell in love with a handsome young man named Narcissus, who loved nobody but himself. Echo had previously been cursed by a vengeful goddess who took from her the ability to form her own words. Thus, she was only able to repeat the words of others. One day Narcissus came across …
The painful side of narcissism
I really shouldn’t complain. I haven’t lost my housing or job. I have plenty of food and toilet paper, and so far, no close friend or family have died from COVID. That said, this pandemic is hard. In fact, it is exhausting.
During the spring and summer, I gave positive COVID results to a number of patients from my home’s safety, thanks to telehealth. But the reality of telling patients how …
As the burden of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) plateaus into a perpetual state of public health emergency for 2020, examining the United States’ forgotten epidemic of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) offers insight to a COVID-19 solution. STIs are the long-neglected contagious disease that echo many of the same socioeconomic, political, racial, and structural problems feeding the recursive tragedy of COVID-19. Targeted investments are of critical importance as there is a …
How the STI epidemic can inform policy solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic
As we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic causing spiking numbers of cases, the scientific and medical communities continue to search for effective treatments and preventive measures. We have clearly established the importance of wearing masks, physical distancing, and frequent handwashing.
As of this article’s writing, there are over two hundred fifty articles on PubMed about the connection between vitamin D and COVID-19. As the research studies are undergoing, evidence …
Is there a role for vitamin D in the treatment of COVID-19?
An excerpt from Medical Myths: A Sceptic’s Journey.
“Don’t go out tonight,
‘Cos it’s bound to change your life,
There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise.”
– Creedence Clearwater Revival, August 1969
On a summer’s night on the St. Lawrence River, I have sometimes extended …
Are there more psychiatric visits during a full moon?
I have observed with impunity, a silent form of racism that exists in our society and in just about every American health care delivery system against people of color.
If you are on Medicaid, without health care coverage, or have a low cost/low premium insurance plan, you are more likely than not to be an ethnic minority. After a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or trauma, as an ethnic minority, you have …
Traumatic brain injury, race, and economics: the unpleasant reality
During the global pandemic, we count the numbers of hospital admissions. Of respirators. Of deaths. Days of quarantine. Days since our last morning swim.
We count how many armfuls of laundry we do at dawn. We count how many dishes we wash, how many toilets we clean. After all, home is the only sacred space remaining where we live unmasked, where smiles are exposed.
We count the number of rolls of toilet …
The confluence of coronavirus and chronic illness
Late one evening, an ICU physician calls a family to say Dad’s breathing rate had slowed to such an extent that he did not believe Dad would survive the night without life support. This seasoned doctor added that he had never seen patients come back from this condition on their own. Although Dad had do not resuscitate orders and his children had agreed with his wishes to forego extraordinary measures …
Understanding critical care in the ICU: then and now
As pediatricians who care for kids infected with influenza every winter, we look to fall with some degree of trepidation. As pumpkin spice hits the stores and leaves change, our first influenza cases emerge, ultimately affecting thousands of children throughout the season. This year, the flu season will overlap with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the potential to cause more illness, missed days of school and work, and hospitalizations. While …
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase exponentially across the country, influenza (flu) season is upon us. With over 220,000 coronavirus-induced deaths in the United States since the start of this pandemic, we must prepare ourselves for a difficult winter with no end in sight. While implementing universal mask-wearing and social distancing is essential to mitigate this senseless loss of life, we …
Why flu vaccines are more important than ever in this pandemic
I used to work with veterans who sought mental health care. Many developed PTSD after witnessing their comrades get injured, blown up, and die. Some of these veterans had visible wounds, as one would expect, but almost all of them had invisible wounds. The latter were worsened by survivor’s guilt or shame that they failed to protect their buddies or complete the mission. Many had guilt about getting med evac’d. …
A call to action for wounded healers
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I read on social media that sea moss gel is supposed to cure coronavirus. Do I still need to wear a mask?
It’s hard to imagine physicians being deceptive to patients about matters of life and death. Yet, the politicization of health care coverage, COVID-19, disparities in health outcomes, and women’s health rights has severely fractured the relationship between health officials and the American public. Prior to the pandemic, …
Doctors for truth: Fighting for trust in an era of misinformation
My head used to be my greatest asset, and back in 2012, I had my life on track because of it. With a medical education and a few years of work experience on my back, I felt that I had options in life. I had even saved up to be able to buy a home.
Then illness caught up with me. And not just any illness, but one of the kinds …
A physician’s DIY rehabilitation miracle
Lung cancer screening is a process that is used to detect the presence of lung cancer in otherwise healthy people at high risk for cancer. In 2020, 229,000 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and 136,000 people will die from the disease, making it the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
Data show that screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reduces the risk of dying …
Lung cancer screening explained by a pulmonologist
I wrote my undergraduate thesis on death and dying. I read journal articles trying to understand what death meant and how it affected people. I spent hours reading books, both fiction and nonfiction, trying to understand if you can ever die a good death. I engaged in meaningful conversations with compassionate and astute physicians, nurses, and professors who experienced the death of their patients, both adults and children, time and …
You will be unprepared to face death
I’m not outspoken about much, but will not, can not, hold back my battle cry about masks. Would I feel so adamant if I didn’t possess a crisp death certificate with, “CORONAVIRUS 2019” in an envelope inside the file cabinet beside me? Maybe, maybe not. The envelope came sealed with a sticker embossed with the name of the funeral home that handled my mother’s funeral. I thought it was …
What is the wound behind anti-mask bullying?
Children and teens with headaches and migraines have been affected in a variety of ways by these pandemic times. Thinking back, there has been a difference between last spring and this fall and the effect on my patients, particularly in the school environment.
In the early days last Spring, many of my patients who had been having a hard time getting to school every day due to …
How the pandemic affects children and teens with headaches and migraines
Initially, after completing my master’s degree, I felt a bit lost. Being very busy, juggling different roles, focusing on areas of interest to the exclusion of other areas of life has long been my comfort zone. The stillness of having completed an intensive project while working full time would have been challenging enough. But in the middle of a pandemic, I found myself wandering around my house, confined, without a …
COVID-19 is a time of coming to terms with meaning in our lives and tolerating uncertainty
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