Springtime. Blooming trees. Green grass. Cool winds. Sunny skies. COVID.
That is where my mind wanders every year since 2020, when the season turns. I flash back to the drive between the hospital and my home. Every evening after fighting a losing battle at an academic institution hell-bent on ignoring and downplaying the horror that was about to breach our borders. I was a fighter then — maybe more in that …
Although it’s hard for me to comprehend and even harder to admit, I’m “of age” to be on Medicare. Recently, I visited my primary care physician (PCP) for a Medicare Annual Wellness Visit, a one-hour appointment that requires the inclusion of a cognitive screening—whether or not the patient or clinician suspects a decline in memory, judgment, or other brain functions.
The myriad brief screening tools, consisting of various questions and tasks, …
One doctor I’ve worked with had gotten caught up in the idea of being a doctor. She realized, during her training with us, that she had stopped looking her patients in the eye. In fact, she had stopped making eye contact with her patients when she was in residency. She had to tell these two parents that their baby had died in the womb, and she did not know how …
I understand it well. You persuade yourself that everything is fine. And then you persuade others that your marriage is perfect.
You’re facing a terminal illness, but you’re the exception because it surely can’t happen to you.
You’re in poor health with unexplained aches and pains, but you avoid visiting your doctors, instead praying to Jesus to alleviate your pain. To heal you of whatever it might be.
Denial. I was a workhorse. …
There’s a condition that is crippling Black and brown communities at a disproportionate rate and causing 400 amputations each day in the U.S. That may sound scary, but the most frightening part? A new consumer survey found that 70 percent of Americans have never heard of the most common vascular disease, peripheral artery disease (PAD) – PAD kills more people than three of the top cancers (breast cancer, …
I’ve been inspired by a recent New York Times article that came out about IUDs, better known as intrauterine devices, and how painful and horrible some of the experiences for women have been over the years. Since writing some of these thoughts, I saw that a Cosmopolitan article recently chimed in on the topic. I figured it was time for me, as a medical professional, to share my thoughts on …
The red climbs up.
She just delivered, and the arm of my gown. It seeps under the glove, soaking the cuff.
She’s still bleeding.
No worries – I call for the postpartum hemorrhage meds in the order I’ve memorized and used successfully hundreds of times before.
It’s always stopped before.
I trust my training.
She peers over the side rail toward her baby, trying to look past her partner and the nurse and the baby nurse …
There is a diary entry of mine (Sparks) from when I learned that the pandemic would last longer than we initially thought. 17 years old at the time, I described my feelings of fear at the thought that I may die. “I don’t know if there’s even a point to planning for the future anymore.” I go on to write that whenever I don’t get a response from a loved …
Psychiatry has a duty to be trauma-informed, given that 50 to 60 percent of the general population, and around 90 percent of people with severe mental illness, have a lifetime history of at least one traumatic event. Yet the mental health system often falls short.
Consider involuntary hospitalization in a psychiatric unit. Losing one’s freedom can be traumatic for anyone and triggering for those with past trauma of nonconsensual experiences. …
An excerpt from A Schizoid at Smith: How Overparenting Leads to Underachieving.
“Work always lacks effort,” “Just no interest whatsoever,” “Inattention,” “Disturbance,” “Silly conduct,” the teachers’ remarks read. All those criticisms could have defined your scribe’s output.
They are rather the report card marginalia of a class clown. Another outstanding pupil with an alleged 29 detentions in one year and an unbidden nuisance in class exhibitionism. No contemporary would have ever …
If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going—at one time, public opinion of an engineering company run by engineers. Today, perception is a little different. The multinational conglomerate and defense contractor owns some staggering recent mishaps—safety systems, door plugs, unclear technical issues. A disconnect between senior management and hands-on employees is reported. Analysts consider recent events symptoms of longer-standing organizational pathology, finally coming to light.
In American business, executives win leadership positions …
A splashy headline in The Washington Post caught my attention: “Breast cancer death rate dropped 58 percent over 44 years in U.S.” A Stanford Medicine news story reports that this victorious conclusion is based on “a new multicenter study led by Stanford Medicine clinicians and biomedical data scientists.” Using observational data, clinical trial data, and simulation modeling, the researchers found that approximately 25 percent of the reduction in …
Gene therapy has been used recently to cure previously incurable diseases, including sickle cell anemia. It is a horrible disease that I have seen so many times in the ER that it haunts me at night, especially one patient. He was a sweet man with a loving and patient demeanor who tolerated the agony he suffered on a weekly basis with saintly patience. My daughter was helping out in the …
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Is it time to reconsider the age of medical consent for teens? This is a question I have been asking myself as my children are approaching 18. For many years, I’ve dreaded the thought of my medically challenging child turning 18 and suddenly being thrust into the not-so-warm and fuzzy adult world. I have nightmares about her navigating insurance. I cannot visualize my very passive and indecisive child on the …
It was November 2014. I was leaving the parking structure of my local children’s hospital when I realized, “They don’t believe us.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but it would take seven more months to find the cause of my eight-year-old daughter’s unremitting abdominal pain. An ultrasound ultimately revealed a malignant mass on the adrenal gland. Ultrasound is a rudimentary imaging technique, so why did it take …
Most women, about 60 percent of us, have a biological child. And while the birth of a child is often eagerly anticipated at the end of pregnancy, there are common concerns about the impact and process of delivery. Women worry about all kinds of things. We worry about poor pain control, long labor, deviating from a carefully crafted birth plan, vaginal tearing, and pooping on the floor. Obstetricians have …
My mother. 63 years old. Colon cancer.
She first noticed rectal bleeding. She made excuses. Maybe it’s hemorrhoids.
She put her physician on a pedestal. He said, “You’re too young to die,” and there was no need for further tests.
Her daughters, both RNs (one an ICU nurse, the other an anesthetist), pleaded with her to get a colonoscopy. She refused. We pleaded with her getting a second opinion. She refused. Her once-plump …
I almost didn’t write this piece. Almost.
I feared it might be seen as provocative like I was asking for trouble. But that is exactly the attitude that has silenced victims of harassment and stalking for too long.
The short version of the story is that an unwanted presence continues to plague my life, bringing only turmoil and vitriolic spite with every intrusion. In his eyes, our “dynamic” was “volatile” …
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a paper titled “Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events,” which detected the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) in carotid artery plaque, with a higher risk of a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from any cause at 34 months follow-up than those in whom MNPs were not detected. Although this study did not establish a causal effect, …
Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells and tissues in the body. More than 80 recognized autoimmune diseases exist, including alopecia areata, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease, scleroderma, and Raynaud’s. These conditions can cause a wide range of symptoms, making management crucial for maintaining a good quality of life.
Why the immune system attacks healthy cells is a bit of a mystery in most …
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