Cancer

My husband likes to say, “No good deed goes unpunished.” I don’t always agree, but sometimes you just can’t argue that concept.  One of my favorite patients, a forty nine year old woman who I treated for head and neck cancer a year ago is a good case in point. Head and neck cancer is on the rise, and is linked, like cervical cancer, to infection with human papilloma virus which ...

Read more...

I have been married and practicing medicine for 32 years and during that time I have learned lessons that equally apply.  First, listen carefully; both wives and patients need to be heard.  Second, prepare and think before you speak; as the saying goes “put brain in gear before operating mouth.” Finally, perhaps the hardest lesson of all is, when necessary, be 100% inconclusive. Any man or woman, who has been in ...

Read more...

I recently presented Yale Surgical Grand Rounds focused on “Cost and Quality in Cancer Care.” Amidst the talks in Washington regarding our unsustainable health care spending, and provisions of the Affordable Care Act rapidly taking hold, it seemed appropriate to start to critically evaluate how we spend our health care dollar and the value we receive in return. The data are ...

Read more...

I believe the role that God plays in our lives is often magnified during times of great suffering. How we perceive that role is a question of faith, often strong and steadfast in some, especially my patients, but sometimes unreliable and inconvenient to others, like myself, on a journey of understanding and acceptance. During the terminal stages of my grandmother’s colon cancer, I recall her saying, “Je pense que le Bon ...

Read more...