Where have the months of summer gone? The hazy, lazy days of summer to be spent out on the lake, picnicking with friends and family, state fairs, all the fun things we long to take part in. Occasions that should call for one to be present at with anticipation such as class reunions, weddings, baptisms of new babies, graduation ceremonies – all have come to a screeching halt. Even the …
He shoved the paper with the address in his pocket. Then he found his little black bag with the oils and other implements for giving what once was called the last rites of the church, but were now termed the sacrament of the sick, and headed off in the direction of the Flats. Sixty-six Center Street. He’d been there before, he was sure. Only the week before, the adjoining block …
My mom was beyond vulnerable to the virus. May of 2020 marked two years since she’d become a nursing home resident—receiving care for several chronic illnesses. She died of failure to thrive due to Coronavirus 2019 on June 1, 2020, at the age of 75.
As her oldest child, her health care proxy, and a health care writer for more than 15 years, I knew that a positive result in a …
“Time is generally the best doctor,” according to the Roman poet Ovid. But these days, in the middle of the pandemic, what doctor has time?
Health care professionals already have 29-hour days. In many places, hospitals are at or near capacity because of Covid-19 cases. Some hospitals and staff are functioning in crisis mode; chaos reigns, particularly in areas where the surge came on suddenly. As a result, clinicians are stretched …
Modern medical practices are assisted by advances in technology but remain challenged by the costs of doing business. Physicians and surgeons are meeting the need to deliver care to large caseloads by employing nurse practitioners and physician assistants and using patient portals to report test results, answer questions, and arrange appointments, including telemedicine consultations. These systems are designed for efficient care-giving that enables the physician to personally address only the …
In March, I began receiving photographs on my social media apps of my daughter’s Match Day celebration seven years ago at Tulane Medical School.
It was a glorious day, in particular, because my daughter got her first choice: Not only would she be an internal medicine resident at a top-tier hospital in New York, with a reputation for excellent training, but she would be in the same city as her sister …
In cancer language, it’s not unusual for the medical or scientific meaning of a word to be different from the way the same word is understood in everyday language. Sometimes the difference reflects a focus on populations vs. individuals, and in that case, the context in which the term is used is critical. Media reports often add to the confusion by failing to clarify these differences.
Here are five frequently used …
Recently, I made a doctor’s appointment with a new physician at a different hospital system. During my last encounter with our family’s primary care doctor, his angry, unprofessional and unnerving behavior not only scared me at the time — it scared me away for good. So forced to navigate away from crazy — I found myself with this new doctor.
Upon entering the front door of the new medical center, I …
February is a short month. Even this year with leap day. So short. Maybe that is why I am so mad at what Company X did to me.
My health insurance company stole eight hours and six minutes from me in February. I will never get it back.
This is my story of trying to get Company X to pay its part of two drugs I take for seizures. Very important drugs. …
I am a retired union plumber with the state of Illinois. I’ve had laparoscopic surgery on both knees, a lower back surgery that required two stainless rods, and I’m not sure how many screws, and three cervical fusions. I now suffer from neuropathy (nerve dysfunction) in my feet.
They’re painfully numb: A shoe could come off, and I wouldn’t know it. I find it difficult to get around — not to …
A radical change is emerging from within our health care system: Rather than deny or defend medical errors, some hospitals are acknowledging them upfront. This enlightened response has been gaining ground since 2001 when the University of Michigan Hospital introduced one of the first medical error disclosure programs: the Michigan Model.
Hospitals that adopt the model also promise to explain why the error occurred, apologize, offer fair compensation, and learn from …
Ed is not from Kentucky. I believe he told me he is from West Virginia and from a very low-income family. At about 15, he was hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. He’s now about 30.
But for a guy in a wheelchair, he is nothing short of remarkable for what he gets done. He goes everywhere, either by his own strength or by bus, even on …
It is a special group, a mish-mash of medical professionals all with a common purpose: Honing the ability to practice medicine in a more empathetic and compassionate manner, which will benefit both the patient and the professional alike.
All meet to share viewpoints, share feelings, share the”what might have been.”
Sessions are first given over to close examinations of selected prose, poetry, art, or music. Reflecting upon what is placed before them, …
As a relatively healthy Medicare patient, I do not visit doctors often.
I have had digestive issues most of my life — probably from too many antibiotics when I was a child with recurring strep throat, or so I’m told.
My husband and I had just returned from living out of state for two months while he was treated with proton therapy for cancer.
My stress levels were high.
I was not resting well …
My husband is a type 2 diabetic with mild chronic kidney disease, which has been well controlled on 500 mg metformin BID plus saxagliptin (AstraZeneca’s Onglyza).
At the end of last year, he got a letter from his Medicare Advantage PPO, UnitedHealthcare (UHC), advising him that the Onglyza (UHC only uses brand names) would no longer be covered and recommending he have his doctor switch him to another DPP-4 inhibitor, either …
The issue of noncompliance comes up repeatedly in patient care.
Whether in the context of primary care or allied health care, in most situations, patients seem unreasonable and irresponsible when it comes to taking their medication, attending consultations, adjusting lifestyles, or heeding the advice of their providers.
A critical examination presents the term “compliance” as negativistic and synonymous with victimization, powerlessness, and the inability to self-determine. Due to the gravity of some …
Mr. Fine is in for the eleventh time in less than a week. I work as a social worker in a hospital emergency psych unit. Mr. Fine is suicidal again. It is kind of late in the evening when I see him, although it is my first time, I am the only social worker on tonight.
This is the usual situation, one social worker per shift.
The psychiatrist takes me aside, quietly …
I knew things weren’t right when a nurse called me on my cell phone just a few minutes after she sent me to pump milk in a private room and said that the medical team wants to meet with my husband and me immediately in a conference room. My suspicions were confirmed when we walked into a conference room and saw a long table full of doctors who all stood …
The brother I never knew.
He was buried in an unmarked grave with other dead babies. 1960.
I am now the age my mother died. She was 64 years old: colon cancer.
She was a vacant, negligent mother.
During one of my psychology classes in nursing school, we learned about the baby monkey experiment (the Harlow experiment), where a baby monkey was laid against a mother made of wires. It was an inanimate object …
The pediatrician kept on telling me that everything was fine. What could possibly be wrong? His motor skills were right on time, if not a little early. He even had emerging problem-solving skills. He did things like push a chair up to a shelf to climb up and get what he wanted. Three decades later, he still does clever things that make me question why he is so impaired.
Unfortunately, there …
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