An excerpt from Brain Storm: A Life in Pieces.
The first time it happened, I sat only a few feet away from Yael in her tiny office, a position that usually made me feel safe, but this time I was about to explode.
“Shelley, what’s going on?”
I couldn’t squelch my intense agitation. “I feel like I’m going to jump out a window!”
“You’re …
A physician’s story of dissociative identity disorder
Ketamine (colloquially called “K,” “Special K,” or “Vitamin K”) is a potent, dissociative anesthetic. More specifically, it is a nonselective NMDA antagonist that initiates a wide array of physiological effects, already having ingratiated itself to a wider audience through its potential for abuse. Once used primarily in veterinary medicine, ketamine in recent years, however, has seen its medical applications extend beyond the realm of anesthesia, with clinical options now including …
Ketamine’s non-anesthetic powers: Please wait for the science
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of assisting more than 2,000 distressed physicians – some with burnout, others with “rough edges,” still others with psychiatric conditions or misuse of drugs and alcohol. Some of these doctors were still functioning well; others had lost their licenses and their livelihoods, hoping against hope that they would somehow be able to return to medicine. Linking all these physicians is a shared passion …
Organizations that nurture physicians’ careers can attract and retain the best doctors
“We need to crawl before we walk and walk before we run. The first step is to establish your why. Why do you want the financial freedom to practice medicine because you want to, the way you want to instead of because you have to? Without a why, even achieving financial …
Why do physicians fail to focus on their personal finances? [PODCAST]
Introduction
The USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam was implemented to assess medical students/graduates based on 12 standardized clinical encounters. The exam was graded as pass/fail based on three components: integrative clinical encounter (ICE), communication and interpersonal skills (CIS), and spoken English proficiency (SEP). To receive an overall passing grade, an examinee was required to pass all three components.
Over the years, there have been increasing demands to …
The Pandora’s box of Step 2 CS reporting
Maybe it’s a testament to a hardy relationship that there was no resulting argument. Without thinking, I blurted out, “You are so sexist!” I could immediately tell by my husband’s face, his upper eyelids and eyebrows lifted a bit, his mouth freeze-framed in a small “o” — my exclamation surprised and insulted him. Maybe it was a completely unfair assessment; after all, he was standing at the sink, his hands …
Confession from a female doctor: I am sexist
“My children are embarking on their own lives now. While their paths are not taking them into medicine, I see how medicine has influenced their lives. They are committed to investing in themselves to reach their desired outcomes. They understand the value of dreaming big as they create a life and career …
Medicine’s contribution to my family [PODCAST]
It’s been such an inspiring journey for The Podcast by KevinMD! I started the show one year ago, on June 1, 2020. I didn’t know what to expect, who would want to be on the show, or who would listen. Heck, I didn’t know the first thing in starting a podcast.
I did know one thing: Thousands intersect with our health care …
365 shows later: The Podcast by KevinMD’s most popular episodes
1. You will be underestimated. This can look like many things: Little jokes about how young you look, having to correct how others say your name, having your orders questioned or not completed.
What got me through this was reminding myself why I was there: I am Dr. Patel here to take care of Patient X, and this is what we need to do. Make sure your badge works where it …
8 things I learned in my first year as an attending
“Decreasing the burden of combustion material, whether from a cigarette, a power plant, or an engine, will not only pay off now in reducing COVID-19 but also in future pandemics and in reaping the health care benefits of decreasing the constant toll of tobacco and air pollution in our communities. As …
Reflecting on COVID-19 and combustion [PODCAST]
The mission of medicine is to heal the sick. When cure is elusive, it is to relieve distress, and always to comfort. All of us who became physicians had our reasons, but we had to have a genuine interest and ability in science, and an appreciation of people as individuals living in families and societies. We had to be willing to work hard to learn and to keep up with …
The mission of medicine: not just a job
“Thank you. You’re the first to say it’s OK for me not to breastfeed.”
These words have been said to me before by tearful, exhausted mothers. It had been sporadic, but now, it feels like I hear this every day in the clinic. Each time, I feel a rush of mixed feelings as I explain that other options had not been explored because of the known benefits of breastfeeding. I tell …
Breastfeeding is not the end all be all
“My world tumbled upside down. I was managing taking care of three children from home, helping them navigate the realities of our new world while trying to keep my staff employed and safe. I sadly said goodbye to many team members as they made the difficult choice to stay home. We …
How I lost sight of my own health care while creating a women’s health care company [PODCAST]
“We can’t escape shame. But don’t despair, dear reader, because shame resilience can be cultivated. There are mental-fitness skills that can be learned which are self-perpetuating. I taught myself these skills and, in doing so, healed my own wounds – you can, too. Once you have the skills to recognize and …
Shame and the medical profession [PODCAST]
“There were many things to be processed about that event. It happened within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, its disproportional effects on the African American community, and a few days after the murder of George Floyd, an African American man killed at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer by asphyxiation. …
My patient called me the N-word [PODCAST]
“We created a core team of individuals from different levels and functions who met daily. This team’s purpose was to receive and synthesize department-wide information and transform it into new ways of working for our doctors, nurses, ancillary, and support staff. We had a compelling vision which was shared with our …
Bridging business principles with emergency medicine [PODCAST]
Health care systems in the United States are beginning to emerge from the devastation of the pandemic. Since the existential threat of COVID-19 first hit in March of 2020 and the waves kept rolling across the country, doctors, nurses, and other clinicians put themselves and their families at risk to save others.
Clinicians were thrown into situations for which neither they nor their institutions were prepared. Like combat, the pandemic created …
Caring for caregivers post-pandemic
Doctors have a few dirty little secrets. We have the highest rates of suicide amongst all professions and are in desperate need of mental health reform.
For those who don’t know what it’s like to work in this area, it can be difficult to understand the pressures that doctors face daily.
Doctors live their lives balancing an intense workload with long hours, often without any time for themselves or their families. Many …
“Where do we go from here? Conventional wisdom suggests that we can only transform ourselves. This is why I propose that we attempt to recognize the Trump that lies within each of us and to heal him. We are plagued not just by the pandemic but by the human condition—and no …
Bridging the political divide [PODCAST]
May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month. Physicians and others in the medical community need to be more aware of celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease triggered by the ingestion of gluten that affects approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population. However, most physicians didn’t learn much about it in medical school or during training. As a result, physicians don’t include celiac disease in their differential diagnoses and …
Raising the awareness of celiac disease in the medical community
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