One of the toughest parts of treating patients is managing their expectations. We wish that everyone could enjoy a perfect recovery with complete healing, but the medical profession is imperfect and life is unfair. Some folks cruise by decade after decade without a scratch, while others sag under the weight of chronic illnesses.
Accepting reasonable expectations can change the game for patients and their families. If the patient’s expectations exceed what ...
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I visited with 5 charming teenagers last week. Four of them had something in common: These teenagers are texting in the middle of the night, nearly every night.
Texting in the middle of the night is not a new phenomenon. Over 2 years ago, reports on teenagers texting at night began to surface. One study concluded the average teenager sends 34 texts after lights out. ...
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A 35-year-old woman is evaluated in an urgent care center for an acute exacerbation of asthma. She has a history of frequent asthma exacerbations requiring unscheduled visits; however, between these exacerbations, her examination and pulmonary function studies have been unremarkable. Her current medications are inhaled budesonide and inhaled albuterol.
On physical examination, she is in moderate distress with audible inspiratory and expiratory wheezing. Temperature is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F), pulse rate ...
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Research shows numerous benefits to meditation: it reduces stress, increases positive emotion, and even treats acute pain. Commonly, meditation involves focusing on one’s breathing as a way to anchor one’s attention in the present moment. Practitioners are also frequently taught to separate their experiences (breathing, pain, thoughts) from their judgments about them. Thus, with respect, for ...
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I am just back from my colonoscopy more or less. All went well, but I am still shrugging off the lingering tendrils of my sedation. So let's chalk up any grammatical snafus to that, shall we?
I had, of late, had some GI symptoms. But those were mostly coincidental and likely due to extensive travel and the havoc changing time zones wreaks on circadian rhythms.
Mostly, it was just time to have ...
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When my daughter was born, I hired a nanny. Her name was Kelly. She was great, a savior. She collaborated with me in running the household, enforcing the rules of the home. She even had a set of her own rules. I learned from her and her rules because she had more experience tending children than me. She wasn’t a dictator, ...
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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 19-year-old woman is admitted to the hospital because of a 2-week history of bilateral leg weakness and numbness accompanied by urinary incontinence that began after a viral gastrointestinal illness of 3 days' duration. She has no personal or family medical history of note and takes no medication.
On physical examination, temperature is 36.7 °C ...
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I was very saddened to learn of the death of Roger Ebert. I, like so many around the world, was impressed and inspired at how he handled himself in the aftermath of his cancer surgery years ago that left him disabled and disfigured and unable to eat, drink or speak. And yet, despite his struggles he remained a dominant force in film ...
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Why do some obstetricians, midwives and family physicians electively induce labor? The answer is long and politically infused. Nevertheless, it includes patient desires, physician convenience and the acceptance of induction as a form of labor.
The induction of labor is the use of medicine or other methods to initiate uterine contractions. If performed for nonmedical indications, the gestational age should be at least 39 weeks or more and the cervix ought ...
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A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
During the Civil War, anesthesia was provided by dipping cloth in chloroform or ether and holding it over a patient’s nose and mouth. Today, anesthetic medications are delivered in a controlled (and more civil) manner through specialized devices to provide unconsciousness for surgery.
Over the last several ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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