I didn’t decide to “fire” my doctor on the spot. During my last appointment with her, I’d filled Dr. Green in on the details of my mastectomy. I happily reported that the surgeon had declared me “cured”–the tumor’s margins were clear and my nodes were negative. Because I had large breasts and wanted to […]
I worry that in the future, doctors won’t touch patients. When I put my hand on the foot of a dying patient–and feel that it is still warm and offer measured encouragement–I am doing the work of this profession. Telemedicine, on the other hand, is part of another world; I don’t wish it to go away,
George Kamajian as told by Bob Fedor ~ I’m an old family doctor. Seen much and forgot more. Life has taught me that we touch our patient’s lives for a moment, a season or a reason–and sometimes with unforeseen consequences. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1968, when I was nineteen, the Tet Offensive
Andrea Eisenberg ~ Seeing patients in my ob/gyn office this morning, I try to stave off the mild nervousness rumbling inside of me. My good friend Monica is having a C-section this afternoon, and I’m performing it. We met ten years ago, when I walked my three-year-old daughter into Monica’s preschool classroom for the first
My Friend, My Patient Read More »
Bettina Gellinek Turner About the artist: Bettina Gellinek Turner is the founder and leader of a bedside hospice singing group. About the artwork: “I sometimes draw portraits from memory to capture some essence of a patient I have met. The true likeness is not important, but the expression is.” Visuals editor: Sara Kohrt
My co-worker in the intensive care unit said, “Hey, that looks like Burl Ives,” as we came out of the change-of-shift report. The charge nurse replied, “No, that’s Mr. Jones, a federal judge. Everybody’s scared of him.”
Lessons from the Judge Read More »
When I was six, good Uncle Hyman’s shiny nose enticed me for reasons I now find obscure and incomprehensible. I scrubbed and scrubbed at my own nose to make it as polished as his. It stung a little. But I was pleased. Until my nose scabbed over in one big sheet the next
Unconquer This Territory Read More »
Richard Weiss ~ At two am its insistent ring ambushes me awake. I whisper, not wanting to disturb my wife or rouse the dog who will whine for food, write down the name and number before it’s jumbled, swallow my resentment on being awakened and listen to his story–then ask those practiced questions, scrolling his
How does a mother not worry when her son is a heroin addict? Yet, counterintuitively, it was letting go of my worry that allowed me to survive.
We were waiting anxiously for a surgery to correct a stricture in our newborn son Ethan’s aorta, just four days following another procedure, to repair defects in his throat. After Ethan was prepped for surgery, the cardiovascular surgeon called us aside. “Our first surgery,” he said, “took much longer than we anticipated. We are all
Ten Days and Counting Read More »
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