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Latest Voices
My Clientbecomefriend
I no longer see the tubes, the apparatus, or hear the respirator’s cadencing rhythm. Your face is calm, relaxed, somewhat naked without your glasses. It seems fuller somehow; I hope (in vain?) that it is swelled with peace (and nothing sinister). I kiss your shiny forehead, saying hullo. It would have been on your cheek, but this is tricky at the moment. I expect your smile to leap up as it always does but your face is impassive.
Dare to Care
As an educator, my students reacted not to the universities I attended, the degrees I earned, or my experience in the profession, but to my enthusiasm, creativity, compassion and respect. Assuming that I understood the material, they cared more about how I treated them as individuals.
September More Voices: Bedside Manner
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.
Your First Summer On Earth: A Letter to My Baby
Your first summer on Earth was the hottest ever on record. I was admitted to the hospital during a cold, early spring, and by the time you were released from the NICU on Easter Monday, it felt like summer already. I had visions of spending full days outdoors, encouraging a love of nature from the very beginning, but it was impossible to spend time outdoors after 9:00 a.m. without both of us overheating.
The Vital Sign
The other day, our air-conditioner went out. We live in Austin, Texas, so the house quickly became an oven. Opening the windows and turning on fans didn’t help, since the outdoor temperature was over 100 degrees F. The situation was not just an inconvenience—it required urgent action. We were able to get the air conditioner fixed, but it was expensive. We have resources. Others do not.
Memory
“Sure, it’s not like I’ve got a busy day.”
The tiny woman with translucent skin smiled up at me from her hospital bed. Finally, I’d successfully recruited another study participant. But, she informed me, “No research should be done without proper introductions.” The woman before me shook off her role as Participant #14 and became simply who she was. Let’s call her Eleanor.
The Heat is On
During a busy clinic, my eighteen-year-old texted concerns of sudden torrential rains causing flash flooding in our yard, with potential basement flooding. Centuries ago, our backyard was swampland. Now it is developed land and a flood plain.
Heat Advisory
“Heat advisory in effect 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.” The text from the city emergency alert system lit up my phone screen. A little while later, I saw a Facebook post from Denis Phillips, chief meteorologist for ABC News, telling Floridians this was only the second time in over 20 years that a heat advisory had been issued. I was scheduled to be the preceptor on a street medicine shift that night. My first reaction was regret at having signed up for an August “street run,” as we called it. My second was remembering that the run would be canceled
Quenching Heat
In 2023, given the variety of bottled water(s) that are sold not only in grocery stores but also in hospital and medical school vending machines, it may be hard for some people to remember a time when water, packaged in plastic bottles, wasn’t a reality. Oh, there was Perrier, San Pellegrino, and a few other brands packaged in glass bottles. But it was only after the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War—the Middle East operations known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm—that water bottled in plastic found its place on supermarket shelves and began to be purchased by consumers worldwide.
