Sometimes, I’m warned. There might be a heaviness over the right quadrant of my head, accompanied by spotting in my vision, little flecks of light that distract my attention and signal the pain to come. Other times, there is no premonition. Out o…
Category: Conditions
Tears from heaven: a nurse’s tribue to Dr. Robert Lesslie
Recently, a former NFL football player, Phillip Adams, murdered Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife, his two grandchildren ages 5 and 9, an air conditioning appliance man, and critically injured a second man. The NFL player had gunned down these innocent peop…
Stress and medicine: My salute to frontline workers
What is stress? Stress is a bodily response to external pressures. It’s an emotional state that we go through when dealing with difficult situations, and it can have a major impact on our health. When faced with work deadlines, family problems, a…
3 critical things health care providers should discuss in serious illness conversations
Canadians with serious or progressive chronic illness are feeling especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has underscored how quickly circumstances can change. Talking about a serious illness diagnosis and the impact on life expectancy i…
After all the years of medical training, I learned how to treat ugly on my own
We first met about two years ago when she came to see me in my clinic as a new patient. I glanced through her chart and reviewed her scans and pathology reports. She had one of the worst possible kinds of lung cancers, called small cell lung cancer, th…
How reviewing medical malpractice claims made me a better gastroenterologist
When a patient is dissatisfied with his or her care, he or she can consult an attorney, who will enlist a physician “expert” to determine if a doctor has deviated from the standard of care and whether that deviation caused a negative outcome. Over the …
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…
