fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

Sharing personal experiences of giving and receiving health care A premier narrative medicine and medical humanities resource

Sharing personal experiences of 
giving and receiving health care
A premier narrative medicine 
& medical humanities resource

“I Know You Don’t Want to Be Here…”

It’s been an interesting year. Eight months after having a large kidney stone removed, I was diagnosed with very early stage cancer—small, low grade, etc. The treatment (surgery) would very likely cure the cancer. The specter of cancer meant that I found this surgery physically easier, but emotionally much harder.

The aftermath of the surgery was interesting in unexpected ways, too.

Six months after surgery, at one of my periodic follow-up visits, I was sitting awkwardly at the end of the exam table, dressed in the standard patient gown and sheet, and waiting to see Becky, the nurse practitioner I’d been assigned to that day.

Read More »

Playing the Odds

“The odds of anything going sideways are less than one in a hundred,” the cardiologist said.

I was only half listening—too busy signing the papers indemnifying the Medical Colossus against any undue outcomes from my pending cardiac catheterization and probable stent placement.

“Less than one in a hundred,” he repeated.

No problem, I thought.

Read More »

“I Fell Out of the Sky”

It had happened before; the previous time, it was a phone call on a Tuesday morning. This time, the message came by email on a Friday.

“Do you remember me?” wrote the sender.

“Do I remember you?” I wrote back. “I think of you often and fondly, although it has been over twenty-five years since we last spoke, and thirty-four years since we first met.”

Read More »

More Voices

Every month readers tell their stories — in 40 to 400 words — on a different healthcare theme.

Bravery - More Voices
Photo Credit: Sara Kohrt
Bravery

February 2025

Grit - More Voices
Photo Credit: Sara Kohrt
Grit

January 2025

Birth - More Voices
Photo Credit: Sara Kohrt
Birth

December 2024

New Voices

Stories by those whose faces and perspectives are underrepresented in media and in the health professions.

The Distance Between

I was in secondary school in Nigeria when I first noticed the lesion on Uncle Eze’s lip. Like many men of his age in Lagos, he’d picked up smoking in the 1980s, when foreign cigarette companies flooded our markets with glossy advertisements and promises of sophistication. The habit stuck, even as the glamour faded. The streets of Lagos were dotted with tobacco vendors then, selling single sticks to businessmen who’d made cigarettes part of their daily routine.

“It’s nothing,” he said, when I pointed to the growing sore. In those days, seeing a dermatologist meant traveling to one of the few teaching hospitals in the country. Uncle Eze, my mother’s eldest brother and the owner of a thriving electronics shop, had his business to run, customers to meet. The lesion could wait.

Read More »

“Teach to Fish for Tomorrow”

It’s a typical Friday night in New Orleans. The streets are brimming with people from all over the world looking for a night of fun in the Big Easy.

I check the time: 5:45 pm. It’s a little more than a mile from my apartment to Ozanam Inn, a shelter for the unhoused where I work as the coordinator for the student-run Tulane Tuberculosis Screening Clinic Program. My shift tonight runs from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Read More »

A Different Kind of Different

Editor’s Note: This piece was a finalist in the Pulse writing contest, “On Being Different.”

Every parent likes to think their child is one in a million. What if you’re the parent of an individual who is more like one in 326 million?

Society in general has started to be more cognizant of disabilities—some disabilities more than others. For instance, Down syndrome awareness and acceptance has excelled in the past several years, and schools have made efforts to teach inclusion and acceptance of students with special needs.

Read More »

Join the 10,000+ who receive Pulse weekly

Sign up to get Pulse delivered to your inbox every Friday or energize your subscription with a tax-deductible donation. 

Poems

Snow-Blind

Avalanche dream—heavy breakage of trees, boulders ripped from
their footings. Chunks of ice bouncing past as the swirling white
mass picks up speed. I’m running running running but can’t stay
ahead of it. Lungs burn, tears stream from the effort, the strain.
Glazed in sweat, I wake up to the blare of alarm clock, hurriedly dress
and drive to the hospital.

Read More »

Six Sutures

She did not slice the bandage snugged about the numb toe
but tickled an end open to begin the unwinding. She
unwound the gauze slowly as she turned her head
to see where the cloth stuck to itself and how to cut it.

Read More »

Vinegar and Good Wood

You often speak to my brother from the bottle
of apple-cider vinegar
fermented for years but saved just in case
in the back of his spice cabinet.
You can tell him how to make your banana bread
and your hamburger gravy
till they are no longer yours,
being generally better.

Read More »
Scroll to Top

Subscribe to Pulse.

It's free.