I’ve been a doctor for more than 20 years, and I hate to break it to you, but it’s time I came clean: We lie. Doctors lie. Not always. Not necessarily on purpose. But we do.
Sometimes the lies are to our patients. Sometimes, the lies are to our families. And sometimes the lies are to ourselves.
But, nonetheless, we lie. A lot. …
Do you know the difference between a surgeon and God? God doesn’t think he’s a surgeon.
Everyone who goes into the study of surgery has ideas about what they’re going to be. I would imagine that each individual has different expectations of what the future holds, though few find their future at all resembles those expectations.
I recall when I started my surgery …
A surgeon who wasn’t God in the OR after all
Anyone considering attending a Caribbean or any foreign medical school should do due diligence. An Internet search is step one. If the school does not list residency match statistics, that could be a red flag. It would not be easy to accomplish, but try to speak with some current students or recent graduates of any schools you are thinking about.
If the school won’t give you any names, use caution, and …
IMGs matching into surgery: What are the chances?
I am lucky enough, from time to time, to be invited to speak to young women who want to be surgeons when they “grow up.” I always have a hard time striking a balance between what I should share that is positive and inspirational and what I should share that is a little harsh and uncomfortable. Once, I turned to my …
So you want to be a female surgeon. Here are 10 tips to make it.
A few months ago, I was seeing an elderly man in the hospital with a sigmoid mass seen on his colonoscopy that day. He had presented to the hospital with fatigue and anemia, and the long meandering workup eventually zeroed in on this malignant appearing mass as the source. His daughter was in the room while I discussed the results, the …
I am a general surgeon. There is no shame in that.
My interns started the term with mixed career aspirations. One wanted to do interventional radiology, the other, “not sure.” Now, in their last few weeks of our term, they’re thinking about a surgical career. Which I think is great. I’ve been lucky enough to have had some great advice over the years, and I’ve nutted a few things out myself along the …
So you want to be a surgeon? Here are 10 tips to help you.
An excerpt from The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly. Warning: Contains explicit language.
It started with a banana peel.
After years of quiet study in the libraries, laboratories, and lecture halls of Harvard Medical School, I finally made the tectonic shift to hospital life in the summer of 2006. The third year of medical school marks a …
Ground rules for the aspiring surgeon
A couple of years ago, I asked a friend of mine how she met her husband. It was at a bar, and when she asked his occupation he replied, “I work for the city.” She took that to mean he was a construction worker. They began dating and quickly fell in love. Much to her surprise about a month into their …
8 reasons why you should marry a female physician
I bolted through the conference room door on the first day of residency orientation. The room full of interns shifted in their seats. All one dozen of the faces looking up at me were male. I got some crooked, goofy grins. So began my introduction to the world of surgery.
So, what would I tell my daughter about how to survive and …
10 secrets to success as a female surgeon
I’m an old school general surgeon. I graduated from med school in 1974 and after a five-year surgical residency in San Antonio, Texas, I started out on my own, ready to cure the world. Boy, was I raw. Like many of my peers, I got married during medical school, and like every surgeon back in those days I told my wife, …
A surgeon will always have two spouses
American anesthesiology reached a significant milestone last year, though many of us probably missed it at the time.
In February, 2014, the number of nurse anesthetists in the United States for the first time exceeded the number of physician anesthesiologists. Not only are there more nurses than physicians in the field of anesthesia today, the number of nurses entering the field is …
There have been huge advances in patient safety, but that doesn’t mean there is no risk when it comes to having surgery and anesthesia. Each year there are more than 100 million operations and procedures performed with anesthesia. Doctors who specialize in anesthesia — we’re known as physician anesthesiologists — play a critical role in keeping patients safe and comfortable before, during, and after surgery.
Before surgery, a physician anesthesiologist checks …
Physician anesthesiologists do more than just “put you to sleep”
I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile, and finally, am going to spill some “secrets” about me and my colleagues.
We are in debt. I mean, real debt. We are in debt. I mean, real debt. It actually costs most of us almost 1 million dollars to become your doctor.
It has taken us a long time to get here.
Let’s do some …
Secrets that your doctors are dying to tell you
“Twilight! She has to have twilight,” insisted the adult daughter of my frail, 85-year-old patient. “She can’t have general anesthesia. She hasn’t been cleared for general anesthesia!”
We were in the preoperative area of my hospital, where my patient — brightly alert, with a colorful headband and bright red lipstick — was about to undergo surgery. Her skin had broken down on both legs due to poor circulation in her veins, …
How the advent of propofol changed the meaning of the term “sedation”
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Before undergoing surgery, you should carefully discuss your medications with your surgeon and physician anesthesiologist. You may fare better during the operation and the early recovery phase if you continue required medications, but you might need to avoid some medications that could interfere with your anesthesia. Three …
Having surgery? Here’s how to manage your medications.
There isn’t any such thing as an ordinary life.
– Lucy Maud Montgomery
Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.
– Gerard Way
My colleague, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, is currently on leave from his academic anesthesia practice as well as from his post as speaker of the house of delegates for the Massachusetts Medical Society to serve as Lt. Commander Jesse Ehrenfeld, combat anesthesiologist in Kandahar, …
The occupational hazards of being a doctor are frightening
Living in the trenches of a surgical internship can be a gut wrenching, lonely experience for many. The journey from medical student to resident to surgical attending is a notoriously steep trek, necessitating our long 6+ years of training. Surviving intern year remains as hard as ever despite the significantly greater resources and awareness that exists among residency programs today.
These burdens are felt by all specialties and have tragically led …
Survival pearls for surgical interns
You are human and fallible.
– Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Alas, the frailty is to blame, not me — for such as we are made of, such we be …
– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Sha-doo-bee, Shattered …
– Mick Jagger, “Shattered”, The Rolling Stones, Some Girls (1978)
The image of the surgeon is synonymous with strength. Surgeons are stereotypically charismatic, commanding, confident, even arrogant. Strong minds, strong bodies, strong wills. Leaders, especially …
This is exactly why surgeons are so fragile. All of them.
New York Post reporter Susan Edelman revealed the name of the unfortunate anesthesiologist allegedly present on August 28 at Yorkville Endoscopy, during the throat procedure that led to the death of comedian Joan Rivers. She is reported to be Renuka Reddy Bankulla, MD, 47, a board-certified anesthesiologist from New Rochelle, NY.
Having her name made public will be a nightmare for Dr. Bankulla, as …
Joan Rivers: What should the anesthesiologist have done?
Old age is no place for sissies.
-Bette Davis
“I want the surgery today!” She started to cry. “I’m ninety-four years old. I’ll accept any risk. Just take this thing out!”
She looked back and forth between the anesthesiologist and me. Her golf-ball sized tongue cancer had been growing over the past six months. It wasn’t changing from day-to-day, but it had increased over the course of the three weeks since we had …
Tongue cancer in an elderly patient: Thinking of my grandmother
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