I’m an emergency physician. In common parlance, an ER doc. Which means, like a little kid who will eat dirt on a dare, there’s not much I won’t try in the practice of my profession. Many of my colleagues have had far more challenging careers than me, I assure you. But I have some stories to tell. Cyanide overdose while moonlighting as a resident. Patient nearly dying from bite by …
When my friend was in her fourth year of medical school, she and her boyfriend sat down with their dean to discuss their residency applications. Both have since gone on to have successful academic medicine careers, but on that day in the dean’s office, they were nervous. My friend asked the dean for reassurance.
“I’m sure it will all work out,” she recalled the dean saying. “After all, in 20 years …
Physicians face a host of challenges in practice, but the one that looms largest is often this — they don’t know everything.
It would be tempting to think that they do. As patients, we want them to. We want our doctors to tell us that they know what’s wrong and how to fix it. Medical mysteries are fun on television, but in our real lives, they’re profoundly unsettling and can have …
“Where is Saipan?” I typed into Google to search for this little U.S. territory island in the Western Pacific when I was told about a need for an OB/GYN in 2016.
Next, I inquired to the private physician looking to expand his practice, “Do you really have a significant volume to support another doctor?” My vision of island medicine was that there were a smaller number of births due to a …
Early this month, Joanna Gaines, co-host of HGTV’s popular Fixer Upper, shared her pregnancy news with the world via a baby bump photo and an ultrasound, both posted to Instagram. The congratulations began pouring in from excited fans. But the conversation took a dark turn when a physician commented that the ultrasound appeared to …
I feel the mountain in my bones. The methodical plodding of feet over uneven terrain, a meditation, the grace of a single forward path, with no decisions, no guilt or what-ifs, no fear. Just forward movement, forward momentum. I hear Mary Oliver’s words at my core: “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention … how to be idle and blessed.” It’s taken …
Go to college, go to medical school, start and finish residency and fellowship, get married, settle down and have children …
There is a certain expectation of what a “successful life” would look like for a physician mom. Some may even choose to stop work and become a full-time stay-at-home mom.
Even when my spouse, who works part-time for most of our marriage, took a year off work to be the stay …
“Breathe in slowly, deeply, giving fresh energy to your body.
Breathe out, releasing any tension from your day.
In … 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 …
Out … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …”
I try to follow the yoga instructor, but in my post-call fog, I struggle to let go of the last 24 hours. We begin by sitting poses to stretch our necks. But my neck is so …
Giving birth and running a marathon. They are two seemingly different entities but have many similarities. The inevitable pain, the highs, the lows, the feeling that you may falter or can’t survive the pain and, in the midst of it all, that you will never do it again … but then you do.
Marathons take months to train for by growing your strength and endurance as you increase your training miles. …
Dear medical student, I’m sorry.
You had just finished two years of didactic learning and couldn’t wait to feel like a “real” doctor. You finally were starting your clerkships, that is, ultimately working with patients and getting deep in the trenches.
You were bright-eyed as you pulled on your pristine short white coat. You got to the hospital at 5:15 a.m., 15-minutes early for the first day of your very first third-year …
I am a gynecologic-oncologist. I work in the high-stakes realm of cancer care. I strategize complex treatment plans involving surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and the newer biological agents to treat the myriad of disease that we call collectively “cancer.” Cure — or at least control — requires urgent and timely administration of these modalities along with various imaging or blood work to assure that the treatment prescribed is effective. I love …
It’s 5:50 a.m. and my alarm is buzzing. It’s been going off intermittently since 5:30 a.m. Even though I really don’t need to be out of bed until 6:00 a.m., I’ve lived with myself long enough to know my biggest vice is the snooze button.
I roll out of bed and get ready for the day — blue scrubs, messy bun, enough makeup to feel like I tried, freshly clean teeth …
Recently, there have been many times when you may have gotten a news alert on your phone or checked the latest Twitter hashtag and wanted to scream. Or you were too busy to even check until later that day and did not know what to say other than to lurk and watch a train wreck in progress. You may have thought about saying something, but paused and wondered, “Is this …
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An on-call weekend: 48 hours of being at any moment “on,” of being edgy, of being exhausted. This weekend included a full house of patients to see in the hospital, a patient list of three pages to be exact. As I went from patient to patient, room to room, each held its own unique story filled with the yin and yang of life. I realize too, this may be a …
In the spirit of World Breastfeeding Week, I want to highlight all we can about breastfeeding; why it’s great for you and your baby, some ways to make it easier, and how to manage common challenges.
But one challenge that often gets ignored in the offices of doctors and lactation consultants is the issue revolving around the ethics of breastfeeding. That is, addressing uncomfortable questions like these:
1. You might get sent home. If you show up pregnant with your first baby, and it turns out you aren’t 4 cm dilated yet, you will get sent home because you aren’t in active labor. Please don’t cuss out the charge nurse. Yes, you are in pain — we aren’t denying that. But, there are limited numbers of beds on labor suites, and we need to keep some open for …
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Over the last few decades, public perception of physicians has been on the decline. Many issues are to blame, but a largely overlooked contributing factor is the media. Physicians are often portrayed negatively, with stories of narcotic abuse, greed and medical mistakes dominating the news. Rather than fight back, physician organizations have stood silently and allowed their reputations to be tarnished. On the other hand, nursing organizations have been busy …
Some days, I get so frustrated at work. Yes, we all have our frustrations. Maybe traffic is slow, and you get to work late. Maybe you spill your coffee on your work clothes as you walk into your office. Maybe someone calls in sick, and you are short help at work. But this is big! Like so big, it can impact the trajectory of someone’s life. They, in turn, are forced …
“How long have you had the bleeding?”
“About seven years,” my patient replies stoically.
Ange’s angular face no longer retains the beauty of her youth. The sharp lines around her mouth speak of a long life packed into a brief 42 years. She is well dressed, but her manner of speaking betrays the poverty in which she exists.
Ange has advanced cervical cancer — a completely preventable disease. In fact, cervical cancer can …
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As a consultant in gynecologic pathology, I receive requests for second opinions from patients who have been diagnosed with endometrial hyperplasia. My opinion is based upon correlating the relevant clinical history with a review of the patient’s pathology slides and report. In my experience, there is a difference of opinion that leads to a change in treatment in about half of the cases. 75 percent of cases with changed diagnoses …
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