This past month, I was admitting a patient for a TIA, otherwise known as a “mini-stroke,” whose symptoms resolved by the time he got to the floor. In the interest of connecting with the patient during my taking of his history and physical, I usually as…
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted our ineffective approach to the obesity epidemic in the United States. I believe COVID-19 would have claimed fewer lives if we had healthier patients and less obesity. According to the CDC, “obesity may tripl…
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 …
Consumer demand for mental and behavioral health services reached a fever pitch in 2020. From prolonged social distancing and financial strains, to the burnout of extra caretaking, grief over tremendous loss, and the monotony of working from home, the…
You stand up from your desk, take a deep breath, and get to work. It’s business as usual. There are exams to perform, test results to review, referrals to be made, and patients to console. A patient’s son is on the phone, concerned about his mom’s upco…
You stand up from your desk, take a deep breath, and get to work. It’s business as usual. There are exams to perform, test results to review, referrals to be made, and patients to console. A patient’s son is on the phone, concerned about his mom’s upco…
“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 …
As a pediatrician, many friends, family, and even patients would frequently discuss how great of a dad I must be since I “knew everything about kids.” Little did they know that residency only taught me how to intubate my child; I never learned how to …
For years, hypertension has dominated the health care field, afflicting 45 percent of all adult Americans. Another disease that has gained renown in the world of health care is diabetes, afflicting 10.5 percent of the U.S. population. Health care profe…
I first met her at the bedside of her newly born son Tyler. Barely hours after her caesarian section, this mother mustered enough strength to get on a wheelchair to visit her little human at the NICU. That was just the beginning of our journey together…
