As winter approaches and life slows down, it’s a time to pause and reflect on all everyone has had to endure these past few years. To those involved in health care, it has been an especially difficult time… a test of both resolution and inner strength. With my hope that all will see brighter days ahead, I offer the following as my means of giving thanks to all of you …
I saw two positive lines on the home test kit. My body felt like I had been beaten with a jackhammer and the buzzing in my head reminded me of a hangover, the likes of which I had not seen for at least 20 years. Somehow, I organized my thoughts enough to call employee health and then updated the primary care clinic where I work as a physician. Clinic …
At least two million people in the United States are incarcerated in 122 United States prisons. Little is known about the prisoners themselves. Did their background condemn them to bad behavior? Or did they just make grievous mistakes? Do they suffer from a mental illness masquerading as criminal behavior? Can they change their life path? A mental health specialist with 25 years of direct …
For the first time, primary care physicians (PCPs) are being urged to screen their patients, above and below age 65, for mental health concerns alongside screening for physical health conditions. The United States Preventive Services Task Force has published its first recommendation for PCPs to screen adults for anxiety as standard practice. This recommendation followed a peak in the prevalence of mental illnesses in 2020. During this time and …
An excerpt from The Mumbo Jumbo Fix: A Survival Guide for Effective Doctor-Patient-Nurse Communication.
Team building is a popular trend in health care. It promotes cooperation, trust and respect, improves communication, and enhances patient outcomes. Most of the time.
But the camaraderie and familiarity of working with the same group of people …
Over the last three years, we have faced the original COVID-19, followed by Omicron, Delta, and monkeypox.
It is apropos that on the third anniversary of COVID-19, we are facing the tripledemic of COVID, influenza, and RSV.
After almost three years of not getting COVID-19, I started believing that my childhood fantasies about me being superman were true and that my immune system was superpowered with bullet-proof antibodies that would keep me …
Recently, I found a lump that was diagnosed as breast cancer. It is Stage IA, with a high chance of cure, but of course, more information might change that sooner or later. I have entered the uncertain world of being a patient – before this, as a physician myself, I happily avoided seeing the doctor.
While my cancer should be curable, and this will just be a …
The winter holidays are almost here. And it’s the time of year when food abounds and alcohol sales double. So, in the spirit of wellness and health, I’m sharing some ideas for alcohol substitutes, safe drinking, and some general information about alcohol. Enjoying the holidays with good company, food, and drink is a treat. But too much alcohol can be problematic, especially when taking prescription medications or when struggling with …
I just walked 120 km over five days on the South Downs Way along the southeast coast of the United Kingdom. It was a beautiful walk through the pastoral English countryside, culminating in the dramatic chalk cliffs near the coastal town of Eastbourne. While not a technically difficult walk, there were certainly enough hills to climb, high winds, and rainy days to make us ready for our evening pub dinners.
Having spent over 30 years of my career in diabetes, first as a practicing diabetologist and later as a diabetes researcher, I’ve met many people with diabetes. And while diabetes care has evolved significantly over my career, I’m amazed to see that daily insulin management is just as complex and manual for many people, particularly those with type 2 diabetes (T2D) — daily insulin management is just as complex and …
There is one guarantee in life: you will age, no matter how hard you try not to. Some age with more grace than others, and some age so quickly it’s astonishing. Aging can come quickly or slowly, it is not necessarily determined by your age but the whole dynamics of the life you have lived and perhaps your relatives’ lives before you.
Aging isn’t just the change from dark hair to …
Every pediatrician is familiar with this endemic seasonal virus, expecting to see several cases in their office during the winter months and maybe even admit the occasional one for inpatient care. Even amongst the latter, most do well and recover without incident, though the stay can be prolonged.
However, the respiratory syncytial virus — when it causes pneumonia and bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways — can result in serious illness …
Recent news on actor Chris Hemsworth and his genetic test has been widely covered in the media. The actor said he is taking a break from acting after learning he has a heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
I learned this from my teenage son, who read in the news that the Thor star discovered this after undergoing tests as part of his Disney+ documentary series Limitless.
Hemsworth learned that he has …
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Ongoing consultations with a new-to-me internist have raised attention to my in-office blood pressure measurements. In preparation for my next appointment, I regularly record my BP, sometimes several times a day. In other office visits, for cancer talks and such, I simply explain I regularly home and grocery store measure my BP, which always seems to be in the established normal range. I am confident that these in-office rises are …
Although the holidays are typically associated with feelings of joy and thankfulness, it is imperative that people should not automatically assume these emotions are commonly shared. Three percent of all individuals are impacted by seasonal affective disorder (SAD) during the holidays – a statistic many people are unaware of. The media promotes an unrealistic expectation that everybody should be happy during this time, but this is not the case …
I became a self-involved status and achievement “junkie” in order to tune out unbearable inner voices that repeated, “You are worthless … you’re a fraud … you’re a failure.” I was obsessed with grandiosity: I owned a penthouse apartment with a landscaped terrace, a closet full of Brooks Brothers suits, a family crest ring, engraved stationery from Tiffany & Co., monogrammed dress shirts from Charvet in Paris, and towels from …
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“You have the good cancer.”
These are the most common words that spill out of providers’ mouths to patients just being diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. However, this statement does not make this diagnosis any easier to comprehend and digest the life-altering news that has been received by the patient. The survivability rate for this cancer is a high percentage; that is good news, but not good cancer. An issue at …
I’ve moved recently, and in the process of moving, invariably, one discovers old items. This had gotten shelved in the fracas of those years, work changed overnight, changing employers, moving. However, in a discussion with a close friend today, this resurfaced as she’s grappling with patients and family who are not seeing what she’s seeing.
Summer 2020
It’s another Sunday night family dinner. Conversation centers around catching up on the latest family …
Time of death: unknown.
It was around 6 p.m. on April 21, 2013.
My mom saw my grandfather dying slowly in the hospital bed.
She had pressed the nurse call button frantically over the last 20 minutes.
She rushed to the nurse station only to find out nobody was there.
She went back to my grandfather and spent the last three minutes with him.
She was the one who saw my grandfather’s bpm (beats per minute) …
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One weekend, while taking hand trauma call, we received a pre-arrival page about an incoming patient, a plastic surgeon, who had injured himself while moving a glass table. The information we received was devastating — a wrist laceration through the median nerve of his dominant hand. After his arrival in the ED and the formulaic introductions at the beginning of any encounter, he frankly asked, “So, honestly, do I need …
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