Medical

About a year ago, I had an interesting encounter on my way back home to Texas after visiting my parents. I was casually chatting with an older female acquaintance as I got situated on the plane. She asked me what kind of medicine I practice. This woman is in medicine, not a physician, but knowledgeable…

I’m a cardiology fellow on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many, I know suffering. In 2017, I lost my father to rapidly progressive dementia. I was postpartum at the time, and he did not even know I was ever pregnant. My stepfather — my father since I was eight years old — the…

We are still in the office.  I go daily, either dressed in scrubs or shirt and tie, in an effort to maintain some sense of normalcy.  I can feel the anguish of staff who themselves are deemed “essential.”  Their apprehension about the possibilities of themselves being infected adds a starchy thickener to the office atmosphere…

If you’re like most people trying to do their part in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, you’re washing your hands diligently with soap and water many times a day. Excellent hand hygiene is one essential public health measure to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Unfortunately, additional handwashing can result in dry…

Washington State has benefited from an early response to COVID-19; organized and isolated, the curve seems to have flattened. Within our hospitals, we continue to prepare for the worst. This includes addressing the reality of limited resources and an insurmountable number of patients, a “crisis” standard-of-care. For many health care workers, fatigue and fear of…

There was a very interesting op-ed in the New York Times recently.  It describes using an aeromedical evacuation system to transfer coronavirus patients to other cities around the United States. There are hospitals sitting idle right now. There is talk of layoffs in some places. Elective surgeries and procedures have been canceled. People are not…

On March 19th, the federal government loosened regulations around methadone and buprenorphine, two medications used to treat opioid addiction. The change was triggered by the novel coronavirus and concerns that current practices would either contribute to its spread or restrict critical opioid addiction treatment. For all the havoc the coronavirus is undoubtedly causing, it is also…

It’s the high five I’m unable to give to that five-year-old patient after I check his red throat. It’s the song I can’t sing while I look into a toddler’s ears as they cling to their momma’s neck. It’s the hug I can’t give the mom who just lost her father to cancer two weeks…

The current news cycles concerning COVID-19 today are frightening. The media has portrayed COVID-19 as an amazingly deadly virus. And to some people, that is very true. But not to about 98% of those who are COVID-19 positive. The death rates still hover around 2%, and that is only out of the known – testing…