“Hey doc, do you have kids?” the father asked as I peered at his squirming son’s eardrum. Though this question has always irked me, I grew accustomed to it. My patients’ parents asked it often. “No, not yet,” I replied, […]
“With a child, time is fluid. It can surge with a springy quickness – a new word each day, pants abruptly too short, crawling that becomes standing, walking, running all within weeks. Or it can meander with a syrupy slowness, […]
“Mary is sharp as a tack!,” my grandmother marveled, “And she’s excited to meet you.” We walked down the quiet carpeted hall of my grandmother’s retirement community toward Mary’s apartment. She opened the door, eyes bright and snow-white hair […]
“Oh God,” groaned my senior resident, grimacing and hiding her nose in the crook of her elbow as she pulled off the patient’s soaked sticky bandage. “We’re going to have to chop your foot off,” she said, turning toward the […]
“It’s just become overwhelming,” Mrs. Perez whispered. Her daughter Jacinta wandered, wiggled and stomped around the exam room, peppering me with questions. “What’s this?” “Where are the Band-Aids?” “Does this sink work?” “It does, Jacinta.” I replied. “Why don’t […]