R said when he heard the words
aggressive prostate cancer,
he heard location, containment, intruder
confined within hard boundaries,
not parsing each loaded syllable
as its own explosive detail
capable of spreading.
On Attempting Containment Read More »
As a primary care physician, I like my patients’ charts to be updated, without redundant or irrelevant information. So, before initial appointments with patients I “inherited” when I joined my current practice, I take some time to “clean up their chart.”
When patients have complex medical histories and medication lists, cleanup is challenging. But worth it. This process helps me build a two-dimensional picture of the patient, their disease trajectory, relationship with specialists, and longitudinal overall health. When I meet the patient, I can then focus on listening and observing and understanding them three-dimensionally.
It was Friday around 8 p.m., and my husband had the worst headache of his life. Worst headache of your life means you go to the ED, I informed him snappily, all the while mulling over my suicide plan. That’s how my husband and I ended up on a Friday night date at the hospital.
First Time for Everything Read More »
“Thank you for these past couple of days.”
A simple sentence, yet one that forever changed my perspective on end-of-life care.
A faint beeping noise echoed in my room as my eyes slowly opened; it was 5:00 AM. I glanced out my window. The sun had yet to rise, but the darkness and silence were comforting in their own way. After breakfast, I got ready and headed out to the hospital where I was doing my residency training in family medicine.
The crisp morning air woke me up, and the drive to the hospital was no different from usual. Little did I know that the rest of the day would show me what it truly means to be a physician.
A male nurse experiences–and finds himself engaging in–profiling…
Checking Our Assumptions Read More »
Starting to see hospitalized patients saved my life.
I can’t count the number of times I thought about quitting during my preclinical years of medical school. But in India, quitting or switching careers felt like suicide. I hated dissecting dead people, pithing living frogs, peering into microscopes, dropping chemicals into a terrified bunny’s eyes. But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the medical world, so I slogged on, earned good grades, and eventually reached the clinical part of medical school.
A Life Saved in the Hospital Read More »
I watch the ceiling lights pass by as I am wheeled to the operating theater. I have made such trips before: Over the 20-odd years I’ve worked here I’ve had an assortment of surgical procedures, ranging from a cholecystectomy to the repair of a half-torn shoulder tendon.
In and Out of the Theater Read More »
At 4 a.m. on post-op day one, I woke up in the living room recliner, my temporary recovery bed. My dog had his paw on my leg. That’s when I felt it: wetness. I reached down and found blood.
The surgical drains were overflowing. My incision was bleeding. I was beginning to feel lightheaded. As an emergency medicine physician, I knew that this was not normal.
The Other Side of the Bed Read More »
It was a regular duty day at the neonatal ward when I received a frantic call from my intern colleague. “Come quickly,” she said, “We just received a critical case from the OBGY unit.”
I rushed over. She showed me a tiny, fragile newborn—barely alive.
“How far along was the pregnancy?” I asked.
“Twenty-two weeks,” she replied.
The Weight We Carry Read More »
A patient is being wheeled fast as hell down the hallway of our Level 1 trauma center. Blood is dripping off the steel frame of his cart. A collection of the older, goopier stuff rests in a pool under his left leg. I see an entry point near the middle of his tibia as he enters the shock room, a great crevasse. I do not see an exit.
The Happiest Man I Ever Met Read More »
© 2024 Pulse - Voices from the Heart of Medicine, Inc. All rights reserved.
