One doctor I’ve worked with had gotten caught up in the idea of being a doctor. She realized, during her training with us, that she had stopped looking her patients in the eye. In fact, she had stopped making eye contact with her patients when sh…
Category: Conditions
Breaking free from denial: Embracing the truth
I understand it well. You persuade yourself that everything is fine. And then you persuade others that your marriage is perfect. You’re facing a terminal illness, but you’re the exception because it surely can’t happen to you. YouR…
Preventing amputations and saving lives starts with bringing PAD into the 21st century
There’s a condition that is crippling Black and brown communities at a disproportionate rate and causing 400 amputations each day in the U.S. That may sound scary, but the most frightening part? A new consumer survey found that 70 percent of Amer…
Optimizing IUD placement: prescribed medications and timing tips
I’ve been inspired by a recent New York Times article that came out about IUDs, better known as intrauterine devices, and how painful and horrible some of the experiences for women have been over the years. Since writing some of these thoughts, I…
Post-delivery complications: a glimpse into obstetric care
The red climbs up. She just delivered, and the arm of my gown. It seeps under the glove, soaking the cuff. She’s still bleeding. No worries – I call for the postpartum hemorrhage meds in the order I’ve memorized and used successfully hundre…
Youth are changing perceptions of death: Here’s what they want you to know
There is a diary entry of mine (Sparks) from when I learned that the pandemic would last longer than we initially thought. 17 years old at the time, I described my feelings of fear at the thought that I may die. “I don’t know if there’…
How psychiatry fails trauma survivors
Psychiatry has a duty to be trauma-informed, given that 50 to 60 percent of the general population, and around 90 percent of people with severe mental illness, have a lifetime history of at least one traumatic event. Yet the mental health system often …
Overparenting: Finding solace amidst criticism
An excerpt from A Schizoid at Smith: How Overparenting Leads to Underachieving. “Work always lacks effort,” “Just no interest whatsoever,” “Inattention,” “Disturbance,” “Silly conduct,” the te…
Navigating organizational dysfunction: lessons from Boeing
If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going—at one time, public opinion of an engineering company run by engineers. Today, perception is a little different. The multinational conglomerate and defense contractor owns some staggering recent mishaps—saf…
Which study is right? Investigating the impact of screening on breast cancer mortality
A splashy headline in The Washington Post caught my attention: “Breast cancer death rate dropped 58 percent over 44 years in U.S.” A Stanford Medicine news story reports that this victorious conclusion is based on “a new multicenter s…
