On the nights he is home for dinner, the boys sit next to him (if it’s an even day of the month), and on odd days, it’s the girls’ turn. I sit far away. Happily. Because I had over 15 years with him before we had these children. And m…
Category: Infectious disease
How COVID changed this physician forever [PODCAST]
“As a professional woman who most identifies as a physician more than any other title, I know that I run the risk of losing myself to this disease. I am not ignorant to the risk. I understand that my identity is supposed to be separate from my …
A year into the pandemic, nurses are exhausted and angry
As the anniversary for March 11 anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a global pandemic has come and gone, nurses across Canada are at their breaking point. We are exhausted, burned out – and angry. Nurses are on the frontline…
As the world creates a new normal, we must do the same in medicine
Abundance is defined as “the state or condition of having a copious quantity of something” or “plentifulness of the good things of life: prosperity.” The massive havoc of the pandemic causes us to shrink in the face of human fra…
Life in a rural emergency department during COVID [PODCAST]
“I am grateful that I work in a small rural hospital that is like a family. I am grateful that my organization has done everything in its power to protect us… but I hope we can do better. I hope medical workers have enough left within them to giv…
Reflections on a year of COVID
One year ago, on March 14, I worked my first of many COVID shifts as a hospitalist at a large academic teaching institution in Chicago. In the beginning, I think most of us on the front lines felt a strange combination of duty, fear, and exhilaration….
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic
“Come to triage right now, and wear your N95. A patient going straight to OR and she’s having fever and chills.” I was summoned to the triage area of labor and delivery for a patient brought in from the ultrasound clinic and found to have absent fetal …
Where does science end and where do politics begin?
In the past 12 months, as the coronavirus swept from coast to coast and back again, scientific knowledge and inquiry have been thrust to the forefront of American political consciousness. With science’s newfound centrality to our public life has come i…
A physician deals with uncertainty during the pandemic [PODCAST]
“Despite forces not within our control, namely the thoughts and actions of others, headway has been made in my local practice area: the decline in mortality, the advances in clinical knowledge about the pathophysiology, more efficient testing, m…
Cartoons that explain how the COVID vaccines work
Emily Waters is a physician who shares how the mRNA COVID vaccines — known as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — work (click to enlarge): The other option, the single-dose vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson, is explained here (click to…
