Category: Conditions

How this doctor deals with the F-word (fibromyalgia)

I’m “blursed.” I have a loving and supportive family, an amazing wife, great friends, and that includes my dog, a career that is both secure and fulfilling, and yet there is something I carry with me that perpetually threatens to break my spirit. My fe…

Don’t be the patient that says this

An excerpt from Injured to Elite: A Guide To Empowering Yourself to Transform Your Life After Injury. Don’t be the patient that says: “Doc, just tell me what to do …” Instead, you should ask for information to empower yourself to make decisions a…

The impact of COVID-19 on health conditions

For the past year, we have been inundated with statistics about the impact of COVID-19 on our lives. Reports of daily case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are so pervasive that they have become routine fodder for  “water cooler”  and dinner table c…

A Passover vaccine clinic at a Sikh temple

She frowned at me, as she stepped off her truck’s side-rail and onto the pavement. If her mask had not been tightly pulling up from under the woman’s chin, it would have been harder to see her disgust with not just our vaccination event, bu…

If the COVID vaccines don’t make you sick, why do some people feel sick?

Emily Watters is a physician who explains the side effects of the mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) and viral-vector (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines (click to enlarge): Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoon Shrink. Image credits: E…

Partners of health care workers deserve to be vaccinated

As a general surgeon, being called into the emergency room to perform a bedside procedure is par for the course. After gathering the standard list of supplies, I ran through another checklist before entering the room of a recent patient. N95, surgical …

COVID-19 is a crucial part of our individual medical career stories

In early 2020 the COVID-19 virus descended upon all of us in the U.S. No longer something we would anxiously read about in the news from outside our shores, this new public health dilemma had touched down close to home.  Before long, the WHO would proc…

COVID-19 is a crucial part of our individual medical career stories

In early 2020 the COVID-19 virus descended upon all of us in the U.S. No longer something we would anxiously read about in the news from outside our shores, this new public health dilemma had touched down close to home.  Before long, the WHO would proc…

At-home delivery of physical therapy is changing rehab for the better

As an orthopedic surgeon, I perform about 900 hip and knee replacements each year. In an era of rapid discharge and outpatient surgery, patient education is of paramount importance.  Nonetheless, besides the surgery itself, one of the most common areas…

COVID-19 recovery? My long-haul experience with infectious illness suggests disability.

People who say, “I’ve recovered from COVID-19, what’s the big deal?” are wrong. I have lived with long-term disability stemming from acute infectious illnesses like COVID-19 and polio. One winter when I was 17, I was struck with a relentless flu. I “re…