“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, the world captured in a day.” From my latest piece has been published by Narratively….
By Its Cover
Too often, we physicians find what we expect to find … we assume and too quickly close our minds to other possibilities. One patient – a regular in the emergency department for his methamphetamine use disorder – taught me how dangerous this can be. He just wouldn’t stop bleeding … Read more here. Discover is…
It’s Nothing
“I spent time and money to go to the doctor, and she said my cough was nothing – just a virus!” the man ahead of me in line at the coffee shop bemoaned to his wife, “What a waste.” I bit my tongue as I debated light or dark roast. I have heard this…
Tea and Scones – and Cancer
It took travel to a different country and a few bouts with cancer to finally make me realize the importance of self-care, particularly as one who cares for others. We must fill up our cups if we want to feed others. “[As physicians], we become skilled at self-abnegation. We ignore our full bladder to perform a…
Twelve Years
Twelve years. That’s as far as the survival curve went. First it step-laddered down to about 75 percent at five years. That’s good, I thought, right? But then it steepened, plateauing at 40 percent. When you’re diagnosed, they warn you not to pay much attention to survival curves. One step at a time, they…