Medical

I smiled as I waddled to the recovery room for the sixth time that day.  Before maternity leave, my final case was completed; I left with my patients in trustworthy hands, and the loose ends tied up.  As I walked to my car, I never imagined the circumstances I would return to 12 weeks later…

It’s been more than 17 years since the FDA last approved an Alzheimer’s drug. Will Biogen’s drug, called aducanumab, end this drought? The FDA will decide by March 2021, based on its own analysis of clinical trial data and an advisory panel’s review of the evidence. How does the drug work? Aducanumab is a monoclonal…

How are two-career households with children — let alone single-parent households — going to manage with daycare centers and schools closed, perhaps for a long time to come? What damage will this do to career progression and earning potential if one parent must cut back on work? Will childcare demands inevitably delay or derail partnership…

I have worked part-time as an applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapist for the last few years. The job isn’t complicated, and where I am, one doesn’t need a specifically tailored education or license to practice under supervision. An ABA’s clients are diagnosed with autism, and the therapist works to reduce the client’s maladaptive behaviors and…

“The inflammatory response elicited by the novel coronavirus can do great damage to the essential function of lungs. People with underlying lung disease are more vulnerable to this coronavirus, including people with asthma, emphysema, lung fibrosis, and even people with high exposure to air pollution. Smoking and vaping are perfectly preventable forms of high-intensity air…

You may be familiar with the words stoicism and have an idea about what it means to be stoic (there’s actually a lot of confusion and misconceptions out there about exactly what they mean). Let’s take a step back for a moment before we dive in any further. Stoicism is an ancient Greco-Roman philosophy founded…

As I’ve written before, I have to confess I’ve never been a huge fan of pathways and protocols. They often struck me as rigid and insensitive to the nuances of differences between patients. There are also times when they are just absurd when physicians, especially mid-level providers, implement them when analysis of the clinical situation…

I remember reading a post recently on a Facebook physician group that involved a cardiologist who asked for help on how to manage her finances after a divorce. The pertinent aspects of this situation involves the physician being left with essentially nothing in retirement savings. She is mid-career with children and wants an option to…

When I was twelve years old, I was at a friend’s house with a couple of classmates. The four of us were roaming the rural property, which belonged to my friend’s grandfather. We climbed through cars in an abandoned junkyard, tested our balance on some railroad tracks, and explored the surrounding woods. My friend’s grandfather…