I can still recall my first day of medical school orientation. A humbling silence fell across a sea of 162 enthusiastic and largely arrogant aspiring trainees as the dean proclaimed, “As doctors, you will all kill someone at some point in your career.”…
Anyone who has spent any time on the internet knows better than to spend much time on the comments from an opinion piece. The comments section, even one on a site as reputable and respected as the New York Times, is often a minefield of trolls, contrar…
To delay or prevent the onset of memory loss, talk to your doctor. It can really be that simple. Among the diseases that Americans fear most, Alzheimer’s and dementia consistently rank at the top of the list. What people don’t always realize is that ma…
From time to time, I am asked by someone about participating in a medical research study. These situations are usually when an individual, or someone close to them, has unmet medical needs. Understandably, a patient with a condition who is not improv…
Lori Pinkley, a 50-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., has struggled with puzzling chronic pain since she was 15. She has had countless disappointing visits with doctors. Some said they couldn’t help her. Others diagnosed her with everything from fibromyal…
“6 in 10 Kids Got Opioids After Tonsil Surgery, Study Says.” So screams the headline from The Daily Beast. “In the midst of the opioid crisis, doctors sent many kids home with oxycodone and hydrocodone,” it goes on to say. Another example o…
A friend invited me to dinner to meet his new girlfriend. I’d get to hang out with several other people from work and residency, too. So, I was looking forward to dinner. We all sat down to eat. About ten minutes into the meal, I felt and looked like…
Medical treatment has knocked down tumors in 6-year-old Easton Daniels’ brain, but the drug used also wiped out his immune system. To bolster his immune function and help keep him healthy, he has visited a hospital for intravenous infusions of immune g…
Burnout has taken center stage in health care. It impacts every aspect of care and our careers, as we realized we were not living out the ideals and values we thought we had signed up for. As we “merrily” worked along, it was the little gra…
I lay on my side while my father probed the space between my buttocks, looking for an opening in the incision. I was in bed in the guest room of my house, which had been converted into my room for the last two weeks while I recovered. My father, a surg…
