Dear Pulse readers:
When I was about twenty years old and living in New York, I wandered into a men’s clothing store on Canal Street. There, an army jacket caught my eye. I liked it right away. It was stylish–in a counterculture-rebel sort of way–and I decided to try it on.
It fit perfectly.
The only problem was, it cost more than I wanted to spend.
October More Voices: Tough Calls Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
I was a medical student, nearing the end of my very first clinical rotation–surgery–and I’d had enough.
I’d made a breast-cancer patient weep as I’d unsuccessfully tried to extract blood from an artery in her wrist.
September More Voices: Bedside Manner Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
Many years ago, while seeking employment as a musician, I spent part of a summer in Minneapolis, a town I associated with cold winters but which, it turned out, also endured hot summers. My quarters had no air conditioning and I was sweltering, so I purchased a fan, which didn’t help much. For some reason, my place just wouldn’t cool off, even at night, and there were moments when I felt I might suffocate from the heat.
August More Voices: Heat Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
An elderly patient walks into an appointment with her new doctor and empties a bag of medications on the doctor’s desk.
The doctor looks at the heap of bottles and says, “I have some good news for you! I’m going to take you off of all these pills except for three.”
“Doctor, that’s wonderful!” the patient exclaims. “Which three should I keep taking?”
July More Voices: Pills Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
One autumn evening when I was twenty-two years old, I boarded a bus in New York’s Port Authority bus terminal and headed off with my guitar. Dreams of musical success swirled in my head–new songs I would write, places I would perform–and beckoned me forward.
Over the next several months, I pulled into towns where I knew no one (Columbus, Indianapolis, Cincinnati) and took up a solitary existence. I’d find a cheap place to stay and spend my days alone, waiting for inspiration to strike, practicing the guitar and scoping out places I might play.
June More Voices: Alone Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
In my work as a physician, I sometimes see patients whose bodies have come undone. It happens. But in truth, I spend far more time reassuring patients that their bodies have not come undone.
That lump is not a cancer.
Your headache is not a brain tumor.
May More Voices: Coming Undone Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
During my first year of medical school, I came down with type 1 diabetes–the kind that requires insulin, the kind they used to call “juvenile onset,” even though I was thirty years old.
The symptoms were classic–raging thirst and a constant need to pee–but as a first-year student I hadn’t learned that yet, and as a previously healthy adult I couldn’t believe that my body would be so underhanded as to betray me.
April More Voices: Unsung Heroes Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
When our daughters were little, I would head home from my workday thinking, Now I can finally relax.
Of course, once I got home, any notion of relaxation took a back seat to my second job, which involved game playing, food dispensing, story reading, diaper changing, song inventing and rule enforcing. There was often great joy in these activities–and, to be honest, some boredom and fatigue as well.
March More Voices: Finding Balance Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
My cousin Pedro had pale, northern European skin and straight brown hair–looks that contrasted with the olive complexion and black waves of his adoptive parents, my Cuban uncle and aunt, and their two biologic daughters.
My brother and I met Pedro when we went to visit my uncle’s family in Colombia. He was about sixteen at the time, an outgoing teen who dressed well, liked to party and had Playboy photos stuck to the walls of his bedroom.
A few years later, he took his own life.
February More Voices: Suicide Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
She came to me many months after the birth of a healthy child. I’d looked after her during the pregnancy, and her husband had accompanied her on many of those visits. He was a nice man–pleasant and attentive. I did my best to include him in our conversations about the pregnancy and upcoming birth.
Now she was pregnant again, and she’d come to see me alone. Her husband wanted her to continue the pregnancy, she said, but she wasn’t so sure.
January More Voices: Me, Too Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
When I was a second-year medical student, a physician in our lecture hall warned us what would happen if we made a particular error:
“Your patient’s family will sue you,” he said sharply, as if reprimanding us for a mistake we’d already made.
“And you will deserve to be sued.”
December More Voices: Connections Read More »
Dear Pulse readers,
One can’t listen to the news these days or think about the upcoming midterm elections without feeling that our nation is in a state of emergency–a civic emergency that we can all address by making sure to vote and by encouraging others to do the same.
When it comes to medical emergencies, I realized early on in my training that I was not one of those doctors who relished catastrophic situations.
November More Voices: Emergencies Read More »
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