Medical

My first meeting with a therapist was a success: she specialized in type-A personalities, was transparent about her eclectic approach, and her office – on the bottom floor of a converted San Francisco townhouse – felt somewhere still and safe, a purple-carpeted hideaway in the belly of the Earth. On the train out of the…

Surging COVID-19 rates throughout the country and in many parts of the world make our efforts to protect ourselves and others more important than ever. Yes, the predictions are dire, but we are not helpless. Experts estimate we can save hundreds of thousands of lives and considerably boost the chances of controlling the pandemic if…

Have you ever walked into a hospital before shift change in the early morning hours?  The lights are dimmer, there is scarce staff walking to their floors, and people are counting the minutes until the new staff comes.  Most staff exist in this survival mode to get to the arrival of the new nurses.  Sometimes…

“As you know, his condition has been worsening dramatically over the past week. He is unable to breathe without the non-rebreather since last night. Today may be a good time for a goodbye visit.” I told the family of my COVID-19 positive patient who was DNR/DNI (Do not resuscitate/do not intubate). In my second year…

Erectile dysfunction (ED) doesn’t affect only men; it extends to their partners as well. After all, the sexual difficulties are also theirs. Still, men are often reluctant to talk about their ED. They feel embarrassed and guilty, and consider themselves less “manly.” It’s a lot to deal with. But significant others can help by offering…

February 24, 1991, and I wait. I wait on the edge of my cot under the pitched canopy of my far-away canvas home; its sides pulsating from the ever-present wind; sand somehow traversing the walls, everything inside airbrushed a pastel tan; outside the surrounding Saudi Arabian desert limitless in all directions. The winds of war…

“In medicine, empiric therapy is treatment that is administered based on the probability of success because we don’t have all of the information. We make our ‘best guess.’ Actually, empiric decision-making exists in our everyday lives — running the garbage disposal when the sink is clogged, jiggling the key in the lock when it doesn’t…

As cases of COVID-19 sore around the nation, the days of New York as the epicenter of the pandemic have become a distant memory for this emergency room doctor. Did the government really once send us refrigerated trucks for our dead and a naval ship for our sick? Did we really sit masked, goggled, and…

I recently met a student and aspiring surgeon who asked me if I was happy with anesthesiology and a career in medicine in general. I told him that aspiring to medicine is wonderful and that while I am indeed happy with my career choice, it does come with daily challenges, both professional and personal. This…