Colleen T. Fogarty, Author at Pulse

Learning Spanish

Leave a Comment / Immigrants / Colleen T. Fogarty

My preceptor sent me into a patient room, telling me, “When you come out, I want you to tell me what country the patient is from.” I had just begun my family medicine rotation with Dr. Alberto Rodriguez in his practice in Hartford, Connecticut.

As a middle school student, I’d chosen Spanish as a second language from a purely practical standpoint: in the U.S., I was pretty sure I’d be more likely to encounter a Spanish-speaking person than a French-speaking person. Over time, I became passionate about continuing to improve my Spanish conversational ability.

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Patient Identification

Leave a Comment / Diversity / Colleen T. Fogarty

As a family doc myself, I sought care with a family physician for my family and myself. We’d moved to a major metropolitan area, and I chose a family medicine group affiliated with a small hospital in the city, the same group and hospital who’d attended me for my first childbirth. The hospital’s historic mission was to care for poor patients, many of whom were recent immigrants.

In my new, more affluent urban neighborhood, I joined a support group of new mothers. We were all white and all but me were planning to give birth at “name brand” tertiary medical centers. But having done my residency in a community hospital, I felt comfortable getting my care at one and had every confidence in the staff; the truth was, they’d saved my life when my first son was born.

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Old Grammie

1 Comment / Dementia / Colleen T. Fogarty

Leaning forward in her chair, wispy gray hair standing up from her head, fire in her eyes, she’s swatting at me with her cane and muttering in Polish. I know to not get too close. This is my step-great-grandmother, but we never called her that. She was “Old Grammie” to us.

Old Grammie immigrated from Poland to Connecticut as a teen where she married a farmer and had six children. She spent her adulthood at their dairy farm, working hard as a wife, mother and dairywoman.

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The Topaz Ring

5 Comments / Grit / Colleen T. Fogarty

On fancy occasions, I wear a topaz ring—a large, pale-yellow gem in fine filigree setting. My paternal grandmother had purchased this ring for herself. I, being the oldest grandchild and also sharing her birth month, received this treasure as a young adult.

Grandma Fogarty had died when I was only five. When I was young, I remember waking up after naps at her house to find M&M’s waiting for me on the bedside table in a small plastic medicine cup. She was quiet and kind. I vividly remember her wake, in a dim room with plush red carpet and fancy furniture. A crowd of solemn-looking adults dwarfed me. I recall a shiny wooden casket with a satin lining and kneeling to pray in front of her lifeless body. Her face was waxy, and her hands were wrapped around a rosary.

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Election Day

Leave a Comment / Recovering / Colleen T. Fogarty

The elderly farmer in faded overalls leaned on his cane as he struggled to enter the room. We ushered him to a nearby table, gave him his ballot and left him to complete it. Back at my voter greeting spot, I noticed him struggling with his glasses, peering closely at the form.

I had never worked the polls before. As an academic family physician, I had taken a six-month sabbatical in part to recover from the exhaustion of leading a department of family medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Getting outside my usual day-to-day experience was one way to recover. Serving as a poll worker and Spanish interpreter was a good way to get out into the community.

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IV Access

Leave a Comment / Birth / Colleen T. Fogarty

During my second pregnancy, I was terrified I’d experience a postpartum hemorrhage, as with my firstborn, twenty-two months before. That bleeding was so serious the team had used every intervention short of a hysterectomy; they saved my life. As a family physician who attended births, my trauma from the hemorrhage interfered with my ability to attend births. I eventually gave up my maternity practice.

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Insomnia Coach

Leave a Comment / Getting Motivated / Colleen T. Fogarty

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).

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I Just Wasn’t Comfortable

1 Comment / LGBTQ+ / Colleen T. Fogarty

Laurie Donohue, MD, a longstanding colleague of mine, died October 24, 2024. We were a year apart in family medicine residency, both practicing at Brown Square Health Center, an FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) in Rochester, New York. We worked together for years, maintaining adjacent clinical practices. For several years we shared an office and often bounced clinical situations off each other, or shared challenges and support. Both of us had dedicated patient panels, and we seldom saw each other’s patients. I loved working with Laurie; her calm and steady presence balanced me in so many ways.

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Holy Water

2 Comments / Palliative and Hospice Care / Colleen T. Fogarty

My father-in-law was dying. He’d had five years of remission from esophageal cancer, but the latest recurrence hadn’t responded to treatment. As he neared the end, he and his family decided to move him from the custom-built contemporary home he’d designed to a privately run hospice, just over a mile from his home.

I had taken some time away from work to support my husband, his father, and the family during those last days. My main jobs were to run support and errands as needed so the family could stay at his bedside.

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Skeptical

Leave a Comment / A Turn for the Better / Colleen T. Fogarty

I was in the process of leaving my first practice after residency, after three years at a rural community health center in western New York.

Saying goodbye to patients is emotional and takes extra time. Most patients expressed gratitude. Some brought small tangible gifts.

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Firstborn

Leave a Comment / Parenting / Colleen T. Fogarty

Cradling this two-month-old baby boy in my arms, stroking his face, savoring the infant skin.

Wait, what is that? A gap, something in his jawline?

My heart races. I run my fingers gently over that same spot, the one that worries me, this time using my palpating finger more intentionally.

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Joyce

Leave a Comment / The Waiting Room / Colleen T. Fogarty

I head out of the emergency department of our local tertiary care hospital. The waiting room seems pitifully small, probably twenty chairs, with the security desk, check-in desk, triage station and the entrance doors in close proximity. There’s no space for pacing here, and sometimes not enough chairs.

I notice a familiar figure, dressed in bright red, who stands out from the others. With a start, I realize it’s Joyce, one of my heroes. Joyce is the nurse practice manager at our sister health center, and she’s transformed the place into one known for its engaged staff and team-based care. Her warmth and enthusiasm are contagious.

Normally, seeing Joyce fills me joy and anticipation of what great news or interesting question she has for me. But quickly my anticipation turns to dread. She shouldn’t be sitting here, not at 11 pm on a weeknight.

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Colleen T. Fogarty