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

November 2024

Amor Fati

Fortunate to have a heavy coat
and camp pants in the nightlong cold,
we find you face down in a field

rewarming like a lizard
near dead of an overdose—
leaves of grass imprinted
on your body catatonic,

eyes swollen from allergens.
All you can do is drool, mutter,
hallucinate and punch the sky.

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Surviving Blackness in Medicine

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

Omar M. Young and Camille A. Clare are two Black academic OB/GYNs from different walks of life. Together, they offer their respective observations on what it means to be Black in medicine. “Through speaking from our lived experiences, we hope to help those who have historically been minoritized in medicine know that they are seen, that they are heard and that their experiences are valid.”

I survived — Omar M. Young

The sun was gloriously blinding, and the air as calm as could be on a warm June morning, more than a decade ago.

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Insomnia Coach

My mother, in her seventies, was struggling with insomnia, due to a combination of stress and medical problems. As a physician daughter, I’ve avoided giving my family specific medical advice, especially unsolicited.

Yet I know cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective treatment for insomnia. Years ago, a conference speaker emphasized the primacy of CBT for sleep issues and recommended a free app developed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Insomnia Coach Read More »

Thanksgiving 2023

It has been years, decades really, since I have watched television. I have the box, watch movies, but haven’t had cable ever. My two children were in first and second grade when I divorced their dad, and the house we moved into had no reception.

“Oh, well,” I told them, “no TV.” They were too little to grumble, but years later my daughter thanked me, saying, “We did so many other things.”

Now I find myself newly single and in transition for the winter, living in a rented house with—you guessed it—a TV with a full complement of channels and full reception.

Thanksgiving 2023 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.

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Chemo Journeys

DRIVEN

My wife closes her eyes as I pull out of our driveway. She usually navigates, but not today. Pale as a ghost, she dozes off.

Even with GPS, I feel lost.

Finally, we arrive at our destination. I position the car carefully so she can get out without falling. As I watch her gathering up her things, I remind her that she’s brought too much—there’s no way she’ll use it all.

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From One Little Lady to Another

Donna dropped her blood-thinner tablets on the floor prior to surgery.

“It’s a sign I shouldn’t be taking them,” she said.

Now, sometime later, it makes me smile to think of it; she’s recovered well from the surgery and has resumed her medications. I’d told her to stop taking them just prior to the surgery—a complex hernia repair—and to resume them the day after, but she’s the type of person who does what she wants, what she thinks is best.

From One Little Lady to Another Read More »

Rapid Mobilization

Since November 6, 2024, nothing has been routine for health care providers like me who proudly provide gender-affirming health care to trans and gender-diverse people. Now, every medical visit is marked with a pregnant pause after I enter the exam room, say hello, and ask how the patient is today . . . after which each patient expresses their profound fears and anxieties about whether they will be able to continue to get the care they need to be healthy and safe. My clinical sessions are packed with patients, and discussions such as these need time and attention, so now I run more behind than ever.

Rapid Mobilization Read More »

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