Getting a medical diagnosis can actually be a huge relief. I know it may seem counter-intuitive. Saying “I have cancer,” “I have Parkinson’s,” or “I have depression” definitely doesn’t belong in the same …
Category: Conditions
Back to reality when it comes to pain treatment
Back in the 1980s, I had a longtime patient, age about 30, that came to my office for severe back pain. She previously had some mild back pain and had no orthopedic evaluation. Otherwise, she was in good health without any other health issues. She coul…
All I ever wanted to be was a nurse
I am a nurse. I am tired and defeated. Thursday, I went to work at 7 a.m. after the strike, only to want to leave as soon as I walked into the hospital. We were short-staffed … again. I made an “aware” which is a hospital forum where …
Is our health care system based on untruths?
As Americans, we live in one of the most affluent countries in the world. Outwardly, many of our citizens seem to possess the necessities of life: shelter, food, job employment, and world-class health care. But what happens when we take a closer look? …
COVID-19 and psychiatric units: Keeping clinicians and patients safe throughout the pandemic
Patients running rampant- unmasked, hand unwashed, undistanced. You stand in the nurse’s workstation, watching the chaos ensue while holding the positive COVID test results in your hands. The world slows as you think, “How am I ever going t…
The hidden world of chronic disease
Sometimes hiding things can work to our advantage: an early pregnancy, a disfiguring scar, public speaking anxiety … Easter eggs! But, more often, they are just temporarily hidden from public view, and, in the grand scheme of things, it can actually be…
My patient with an aortic dissection almost died
“I just moved here from Portland two weeks ago,” said Ms. Shelly in a weak voice. When I walked into the room, I immediately noticed her blood pressure was 224/108. The patient was mostly sleeping, but when I started speaking with her, it w…
Literacy and patients’ understanding of health education
In my first bioethics class, the components of health education (HE) were just being developed, and despite the passage of time, full understanding remains elusive as HE proved far more complex than originally conceived. We learned, simplistically, by …
Who are the neurodiverse people in your life?
As physicians, we equate terms like “disorder” and “syndrome” with pathology. If a diagnosis is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV, it’s considered a “problem.” In the …
Health care’s 3 epic childhood obesity failures
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of spouting the same old worsening childhood obesity statistics, applying the same dilute and sometimes broken strategy, not getting anywhere, judging myself as a doctor, then shifting the blame to my p…
