I’m sitting in a windowless room in the hospital’s urology department waiting for my second prostate biopsy, feeling surprisingly calm and relaxed.
It’s a surveillance biopsy. Two years ago, the first one revealed “a few scattered cancer cells” while zeroing in on what turned out to be a harmless nodule. I’d learned then that a prostate biopsy will never make anyone’s list of fun things to do. In addition to being, …
My first post-op night after my nephrectomy was a mix of fantastical and almost devastating.
I woke up in the PACU after my surgery, extremely confused and disoriented. I felt like I was trapped inside a video game, desperately trying to escape.
Upon entering my new post-op room on a medical-surgical unit, it had that brand-new, hotel-like decor – shiny and pristine. The nurses, techs, and NPs greeted me with words of …
“Do you have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?”
It wasn’t a question I expected during an ophthalmology appointment. It was, however, one I’d been asked before. Two other specialists had suggested I might have connective tissue issues, but nothing had ever come of it. All I could tell my ophthalmologist, then, was what I’d said before when it had come up: “No, not as far as I know, but I’ll ask about it.”
The face of health care in today’s world is unfamiliar to me in many ways. When I was growing up, the family doctor was a well-known and respected member of the community. Patients trusted their doctor to help them navigate life’s challenges – the loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, a complicated pregnancy, or depression caused by life’s stresses.
The physician knew their patients, and the patients knew them …
As Dry January gains popularity and inspires millions of people to abstain from alcohol for a month, its focus appears to be geared towards young adults. A demographic that is often overlooked, but is likely to benefit significantly from this movement, is older adults. The National Survey on Drug Use and Heavy Drinking found that nearly 39 percent of adults aged 65 or older drink …
I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, which is generally associated with a diet of all fried food. Prior to medical school, I thought many adults around me would eventually succumb to a diagnosis of hypertension and diabetes since they didn’t appear to think either was a big deal. However, my medical education quickly revealed that these co-morbidities were not merely inconveniences but were linked to some of the leading causes …
Dr. Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore) stars in ABC’s The Good Doctor, a television drama that centers around an autistic surgeon whose job at the hospital was frequently threatened and would be lost if it were not for the practical and emotional support from the hospital president.
I don’t know how many “Doctor Murphys” practice medicine in real life – autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevails in about 1% to 2% …
You hear it in conversations with friends when returning to work. Maybe in clinic visits with your patients. Definitely among celebrities and on mainstream media. And maybe you’ve even said it yourself. ”
“My sister suffered with postpartum.”
“I was just diagnosed with postpartum.”
“My wife had to seek help after we realized she was experiencing severe postpartum.”
Yet the word postpartum simply means: the time after childbirth. In the medical community, “postpartum” most often …
I started my day today (ironically, Martin Luther King Day) reading another tragic story about a young Black mother who hemorrhaged to death after giving birth in a large public hospital in Brooklyn.
Statistics tell a shocking story. The maternal death rate increased by 79 percent from 2018 to 2021. Women of color had even worse numbers, with the maternal mortality rate among Black women increasing from 37 per 100,000 in …
Skin and mental health are intertwined. This is evident embryologically, as we know that the skin and brain are derived from ectoderm, forming a skin-brain axis. Furthermore, scientific pathophysiology has shown that conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis are directly influenced by mood.
Whether you are a patient, a provider, or an aesthetics professional, be aware that treating skin should also include treating mental health when needed. Ignoring that …
In its annual cancer statistics report released this week, the American Cancer Society (ACS) predicted over 2 million new cancer cases and over 600,000 cancer deaths in the United States in 2024. The ACS cites decreased smoking rates, earlier detection, and improved treatments as the primary reasons for decreased death rates from cancer in recent decades. Missing from the report, however, is the fundamental recommendation to shift from the traditional …
I read about a psychiatrist whose interests are in medical ethics and the improvement of medical care for youth coping with the complexities related to neurodivergence and significant mental health conditions. Additionally, she specializes in work with twice-exceptional (2e) individuals – those with exceptional talents and abilities who also navigate challenges related to disabilities or psychiatric illness.
Neurodivergence and 2e individuals are fairly new concepts for me. Back in the day, …
A recent conversation with a relative inspired me to write this post. She is a physical therapist who often rants about how patients with chronic pain or chronic illness don’t work and are just on disability. I know she’s far from the only health care provider with the same belief. She and her coworkers spend time ranting and complaining about their patients who don’t work and use the therapy sessions …
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The American Heart Association (AHA) recently published a statement on the importance of shared decision-making (SDM) between physicians and patients. This concept, though at least 50 years old, has become popular in the last decade or so, with expectations of improving patient care, satisfaction, safety, care efficiency, and cost reduction. Though some preliminary research appears to support these promises, other researchers have found that it can increase costs and decrease …
In June of 2023, a release was buried in the cacophony of news stories that the USDA had approved two companies for selling lab-grown meat. This news followed the FDA’s conclusion that lab-grown meat was safe for human consumption. The two companies, GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods, have been working on various lab-grown types of meat, including steak, seafood, and pork, but have been given the regulatory go-ahead for Chicken.
The …
Maria (name changed to protect patient privacy) is a brilliant woman with a troubled health history. After a mental health diagnosis cut short her career as a high-level government official, Maria has struggled with diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, depression, and advanced kidney disease, leading to a series of toe amputations and a decade of disability.
She lives alone, about a half-hour from the nearest hospital, where she has been in and out …
We have a female patient admitted to our oncology ward for a week. I’ve known her for a long time. She works in our hospital’s dental department as a technologist. She is currently 40 years old. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2009. She underwent maximum safe resection; it was oligodendroglioma grade 3. She underwent concurrent chemoradiation followed by chemotherapy and received a few more cycles of adjuvant …
In 2022, the World Health Organization released the World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All, which recognizes the critical importance of mental health to everyone, everywhere – including doctors and their families.
The consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and other major issues such as climate change, global conflict, and economic downturns are continuing to have a big impact on the mental well-being of many parents …
Those of you who have followed the game or series The Last of Us will recognize the name Cordyceps. This is the fungus that causes a global pandemic of zombies to break out and start attacking their fellow humans. The writers, in this case, did a good job by using this infection in their story.
Cordyceps is a genus of over 600 fungal species spread around the world called endoparasitoids, meaning …
“What did you see?” I asked her, as she sat across from me, wide-eyed and obviously unnerved even thinking back about the episode.
“It was horrible,” she said, “just horrible. I was lying on my back, and I saw it in the doorway, a big, dark, shadowy figure, blocking the door to my bedroom. I tried to scream, and nothing came out. I tried to raise my hands, to shield my …
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