A patient, let’s call him Jay, came to me refusing a leg amputation. He had open sores that were necrotic, foul-smelling as if he had been neglected for a long time. At his consultation, he fought with every cell of his being, refusing to lose hi…
Category: Conditions
What a lifetime of gaslighting by other doctors feels like
If your shoulder were really injured, that maneuver would make you scream in pain,” he told me confidently. My husband and I recently established care with a new family doctor. I was frightened and scarred from a long history of medical gaslighti…
A dead baby in my arms
Five days before this story begins, where everything is upside down, and the end is the beginning. Me, standing in my PICU, slowly approaching that cradle, then removing the medication, one by one, turning off the syringe pumps. Saying out loud the num…
Why is there a shortage of mental health professionals?
There are many topics on which I cannot claim to be an expert. I cannot solve the issue of gun violence, I don’t know what will “fix” the current societal crises, and I have no idea what will happen in the future regarding climate cha…
Game over for behavioral health
He was a tall, healthy psychiatric technician, experienced in his line of work. He was a CNA but wanted more. He wanted to help heal the troubled, forgotten, and neglected — behavioral health was his niche. He would lead the way with therapy sessions i…
Open-angle glaucoma: To screen or not to screen?
In a published statement in JAMA Network on May 24/31, 2022, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found that there was insufficient evidence for screening for primary open-angle glaucoma in adults. They could not find a way to balance harms versus b…
Confronting weight bias in health care
One day, working as a floater PT, I walked into the rehab gym, and every single therapist looked at me with the same pitying expression. The rehab manager took me into her office. “I’m so sorry to put you in this position. One of your new p…
The body is the gateway to the Original Blueprint
An excerpt from The Paper Tiger Syndrome: How to Liberate Yourself from the Illusion of Fear. Your Original Blueprint is the part of you that knows abundance is your natural state. It’s the inner voice, which says, I am full. I am satiated. I am …
Precision medicine: the rifle vs. shotgun approach to cancer treatment
Why does one person respond favorably to lung cancer treatment while another does not? The answer lies in their DNA. Just 20 years ago, lung cancer was broadly categorized into two groups: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (…
How to help rewrite the COVID-19 information playbook
Facts combat fear It’s hard to believe the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the U.S. only a year and a half ago. Like many others, I welcomed the COVID-19 vaccine as a triumph of global cooperation that leveraged decades of research and…
