Physician

For a bunch of folks striving to stomp out malignant processes in our patients, we sure tolerate a fair amount of destructive behavior among training programs.

I’ll be the first to say I’m not the most delicate flower in the garden. Before pursuing medicine, I was a college athlete. I’m no stranger to long hours, harsh coaches, or repeated failures.

Medical students get their first bitter taste of malignant ...

Read more...

During a typically busy Saturday evening shift in the emergency department (ED), I am summoned to the trauma room for a “tie-down,” an agitated patient needing restraints. I find the entrance choked with police officers and push my way through to see the patient.  Once there, I see a large, young appearing Black man lying on his back, his hands cuffed tightly together on his stomach, a netted hood over ...

Read more...

“Hope things go back to normal soon.” That was the text I received from a friend yesterday. It struck me in reading those words that I have stopped thinking or worrying about the end of the pandemic. In those first months, absolutely. Daily thoughts of getting back to normal life. Now, out of self-preservation and a renewed sense of life’s sacredness and fragileness, I have turned to making the most of each ...

Read more...

He was in his 30s, strikingly handsome with the short-cropped hair of a soldier. This was Ukraine, and it was at war with Russia. He was now part of that war, a war the rest of the world has forgotten or no longer cares about, even as its’ young men continued to fight and die in the horror that is the front-line. His unit’s chaplain asked me to see him ...

Read more...

To be seen.

To be heard.

To be understood.

To be acknowledged.

To be appreciated.

To be accepted.

To be welcomed.

To be engaged.

To be involved.

To be worthy.

To be helped.

Common desires of patients.

Common desires of physicians.

We are all interrelated.

This is the foundational basis of osteopathic medicine. Whether ...

Read more...

It took me 47 years to hear those two devastating words, “You’re fired.” It’s not like I didn’t have a slew of jobs before becoming a physician.  I cut lawns and raked leaves as an early teen; I worked in a fast-food restaurant when I was 14 using my older brother’s ID, I worked in a carwash one summer, I even worked for a national department store. I was always polite, ...

Read more...

In the KevinMD article, "Assisted suicide: a change of heart," the author contends that there is salvation in suffering, but not everyone believes that is true. While I support the author's ability to decide how she wants to die, I do not believe that her personal beliefs should dictate how I die. I retired as an internist a few years ago because of declining health. I ...

Read more...

I recently published an essay on physician suicide: "Doctors are killing themselves, and who is taking notice?"  My intent was to bring awareness to this issue and honor a fallen colleague.  I want to continue the discussion. I realized that year after year, I fill out the medical licensure recertification without much thought. I live in Kentucky and have since I was initially licensure and the recertification ...

Read more...

I have a lot of energy. I have been going and going and going for so long. And today, it hit me. I’m tired. I began this pursuit of medicine in 1983 when I decided to be a zoology major. I worked and went to medical school. And I went to medical school and worked. Then I worked and went to three years of emergency medicine residency and worked hard for those three ...

Read more...