Patient

The Empowered Patient: Finding Dr. Right

An except from The Empowered Patient.

by Elizabeth Cohen, MPH

Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets into trouble at the doctor’s office? While she’s waiting in the examining room, she sneaks a peek at her chart and notices that it says she’s “difficult.” When the doctor comes in, he whips the chart out of her hands.

DOCTOR: You shouldn’t be reading that.

ELAINE: …

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Laughter and humor heals the soul in life’s most difficult times

by Charles Bankhead

My oldest sister died recently. She spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home, trying to hold on to reality and her dignity as her mind and body betrayed her.

Barely five feet tall, my sister Peggy had a big heart and a vibrant personality that made her seem much taller. I have a lot of fond memories of her, many of which involve her …

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Caring for dying patients needs better physician communication

by Michael Smith

Clinicians treating dying patients did well in managing pain but fell short on communicating with patients and their loved ones, researchers said.

The findings, from a single-institution study, suggest that those who care for terminal patients also often failed to assess shortness of breath in a dying patient whose mechanical ventilation was withdrawn, according to Anne Walling, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues.

But overall those …

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What does a TIA feel like? A Stroke Diaries excerpt

An excerpt from Stroke Diaries.

by Olajide Williams, MD

The man who did not take his medicine

Pedro was lying on the bathroom floor next to the toilet bowl. Water was still running from rusty faucet, overflowing the sink, and pooling around his body as he lay limp on wet porcelain tiles. Lucy was standing over him and whining. The young black Labrador retriever had not left …

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