There is one guarantee in life: you will age, no matter how hard you try not to. Some age with more grace than others, and some age so quickly it’s astonishing. Aging can come quickly or slowly, it is not necessarily determined by your age but th…
Category: Conditions
With RSV, it’s time for primary care to step up to the plate
Every pediatrician is familiar with this endemic seasonal virus, expecting to see several cases in their office during the winter months and maybe even admit the occasional one for inpatient care. Even amongst the latter, most do well and recover witho…
In light of Chris Hemsworth’s APOE news: Don’t panic
Recent news on actor Chris Hemsworth and his genetic test has been widely covered in the media. The actor said he is taking a break from acting after learning he has a heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. I learned this from my teen…
Much more than simple white coat syndrome
Ongoing consultations with a new-to-me internist have raised attention to my in-office blood pressure measurements. In preparation for my next appointment, I regularly record my BP, sometimes several times a day. In other office visits, for cancer talk…
5 tips for treating seasonal depression during the holidays
Although the holidays are typically associated with feelings of joy and thankfulness, it is imperative that people should not automatically assume these emotions are commonly shared. Three percent of all individuals are impacted by seasonal affective d…
The transformative power of EMDR
I became a self-involved status and achievement “junkie” in order to tune out unbearable inner voices that repeated, “You are worthless … you’re a fraud … you’re a failure.” I was obsessed with grandiosity: I owned a…
Stop calling it the good cancer
“You have the good cancer.” These are the most common words that spill out of providers’ mouths to patients just being diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. However, this statement does not make this diagnosis any easier to compreh…
For me, COVID has a face
I’ve moved recently, and in the process of moving, invariably, one discovers old items. This had gotten shelved in the fracas of those years, work changed overnight, changing employers, moving. However, in a discussion with a close friend today, …
Don’t lie about medical errors. Apologize.
Time of death: unknown. It was around 6 p.m. on April 21, 2013. My mom saw my grandfather dying slowly in the hospital bed. She had pressed the nurse call button frantically over the last 20 minutes. She rushed to the nurse station only to find out nob…
The impact of hand surgery on human identity and expression
One weekend, while taking hand trauma call, we received a pre-arrival page about an incoming patient, a plastic surgeon, who had injured himself while moving a glass table. The information we received was devastating — a wrist laceration through the me…
