Working in the Front Office
The phone rings. “Can I see a doctor?”
“We’re fully booked three months out, I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing?”
Anger builds.
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April 2023
First Code Blue
When I started medical school, I kept hearing about “firsts.” The first time in the OR, the first delivery of a baby, the first death of a patient.
In a profession that is so intricately intertwined with the ultimate highs and lows of human life, there are a number of experiences that inevitably go on to leave permanent marks on the mind. I was always told that my first code blue would be one of these moments—and indeed, the night I first saw a code is one that will be forever engraved in my memory.
Seven-and-a-Half Years in Sacred Space
Seven-and-a-half years into cancer treatments and two months before he died, before we knew he would die, my husband insisted on hooking up the new dishwasher in our old kitchen. No plumber would be paid when he could do it himself. The doing it himself wasn’t the hard part; it was the getting back up. I came home from my nursing work to find my beloved lying on his back on the wooden floor in front of the dishwasher.
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Being a Caregiver Is Challenging
Being a caregiver is one of the noblest and most challenging roles a person can take on. It requires compassion, patience, dedication and sacrifice. As a medical doctor, I have observed how caregivers make a huge difference in the lives of my patients, and I always try to take time to listen to their struggle.
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Another GSW
Flashback to a year ago: I’m a third-year medical student, three weeks into my very first clinical rotation—acute-care surgery at our county hospital.
It’s nearing dinner time, less than halfway through my twenty-eight-hour call shift, when my pager buzzes, alerting me to an incoming trauma. Looking down, I read three letters: “GSW.”
A Letter to My Unsung Hero
Dear Veterinary Technician,
It’s been thirty years, but I remember how softly you entered the exam room, holding Marmaduke’s leash. I remember your porcelain skin and beautiful long hair framing your young face. I dabbed my tears with a Kleenex. I didn’t want Marmaduke to think I was upset with her. She’d endured surgery and four months of chemo, but now it wasn’t working. I’d viewed the X-ray of her lungs dotted with metastatic tumors. Hope had turned to cold fear and despair.
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Due Date
It’s the bright orange color that catches my eye. Nestled in a box under my home office desk, alongside unused breast pads and pumping supplies left over from the birth of my first daughter.
My first, because there should have been a second. A girl.
Ordinary People
On my first day at nursing college, everything was a blur. When I came home, my sister asked if I knew the name of the security guard at the college gate. I looked at her like she had two heads! Why on earth would I need that information?
“Trust me!” she said. “It will come handy!”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. But I knew my sister, and she always had a method to her madness.