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“ME/CFS is a complex multi-system illness that destroys lives (essentially killing the person yet leaving them alive). It leaves patients with unimaginable fatigue, post-exertional malaise (meaning that minor exertion makes them feel worse), cognitive deficits, cardiovascular dysfunction, …
Medical school, residency, and fellowship taught me pathophysiology, diagnosis, and the most advanced treatments for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. As an attending physician, seeing my own patients, I noticed that targeted therapy is not able to control the disease in all patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The results varied. I could not stop asking myself, why is it so different?
In my previous article, I wrote about one of my patient’s …
At her Supreme Court confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson recounted a story from her time as a college undergraduate. She recalled being a freshman at Harvard after having attended public school in Miami, Florida, and her transition to life at the university had been challenging, causing her to question if she belonged at the school and if she could succeed. She was …
Five years ago, I met a patient that changed my view on practicing traditional medicine, especially when it comes to rheumatology. For years, I was proud to be in a booming field that provided patients with a new therapy every few years. As a physician and scientist, I believe that targeted therapy offers tools to treat patients like never before, but I have noticed that results vary over time.
Daniel was …
“If your shoulder were really injured, that maneuver would make you scream in pain,” he told me confidently.
My husband and I recently established care with a new family doctor. I was frightened and scarred from a long history of medical gaslighting that still tightens my throat whenever I meet a new physician.
Will this doctor believe me? Will he understand?
Years of dismissal made me wary of a new start, but we …
Three years ago, I was a physician in the “traditional” medical system seeing 25 to 28 patients every day. I spent hours writing notes to provide proper documentation for the correct billing code. Often, my time was spent calling insurance companies to justify the appropriateness of my medical care. More and more hours were spent on completing tasks for insurance companies rather than patient care. Like many of my colleagues, …
Yet again, while reading an article about fibromyalgia, I was hit with another pejorative term in the first few lines. The authors describe the usual characteristics of fibromyalgia and then say, “and a high level of catastrophizing related to pain.”
If you do a Google search for “catastrophizing,” it tells you that it is “a way of thinking that assumes things are worse than they are or will have a far …
Joint pain, nausea, dizziness, bloating, palpitations, urticaria, headache, and fatigue. Surely this must be a list of the chief concerns for each of your first eight patients for the day.
No, these chief concerns all belong to your very first patient of the day. A new patient is scheduled for a 20-minute slot.
How will you possibly get out of the room in time? How can you ever help this young woman? …
As a clinician, you likely do not have the luxury of playing “Dr. House.” Patients enter your exam room, long story in hand, with a litany of mysterious symptoms involving every bodily system, and you were already massively overbooked. Your patient leaves the encounter no closer to answers despite your best attempts which involved you spending far more time on their assessment than your crazy office schedule allows.
Your staff becomes …
The new reality of medical conferences shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic requires a new language and a fundamental rethink to make these major showcases of medical organizations and societies a place where physicians and patients can share their experiences and perspectives.
We can no longer characterize medical conferences as – in the words of an old Jimmy Buffet tune – “a Holiday Inn full of surgeons” who meet there every year …
One day, a primary care physician located about two hours away called my office in a desperate attempt to find a rheumatologist. His lovely 64-year-old patient, very healthy otherwise, recently developed a severe and disabling inflammatory arthritis. After conservative treatments failed, he tried to refer the patient to the traditional medical system. However, they could not get a sooner than six months appointment. This is a symptom of a broken …
“The symptoms of EDS aren’t limited to the musculoskeletal system and commonly affect everything from hearing and vision to integumentary issues such as prolonged wound healing and easy bruising. It also became apparent that the specialists I had seen had contributed valuable information to the overall puzzle but were simply not able …
I’m “blursed.” I have a loving and supportive family, an amazing wife, great friends, and that includes my dog, a career that is both secure and fulfilling, and yet there is something I carry with me that perpetually threatens to break my spirit. My fellow Reddit fans/addicts know the meaning of “blursed,” but for those that don’t, it’s one of my favorite portmanteaus – it means to be both “blessed” …
Embarrassment is a feeling of awkward self-consciousness or shame. It manifests as a sense of discomfort or even foolishness around others. Feeling embarrassed is emotionally painful because it means you feel uncomfortable with yourself.
The problem with embarrassment is that it adds a layer of mental suffering to the difficulties you’re already facing with your health. Here are four reasons why those of us who are chronically ill feel embarrassed at …
Australian singer/songwriter Sia (born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler), 43, is known for wearing elaborate wigs and headpieces that hide her face. However, the “Chandelier” singer is not hiding the fact that she was recently diagnosed with the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
“Hey, I’m suffering with chronic pain, a …
Reality star and meta-celebrity Kim Kardashian West made the rounds on the network news and talk shows last week to promote her new line of shapewear. But she also talked about the recent health scare that was revealed on the latest episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Talking to Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on Today, …
“The Big Sick” is an intimidating name for a movie. I never know what to think when “sick” is used as a noun. Does it mean vomit? Are we referring to ailing people? Just as the name doesn’t give you much insight, neither does the beginning of the film. It has nothing to do with illness. It’s about a Pakistani standup comedian/Uber driver who starts dating a white girl, but …
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 23-year-old woman is evaluated for 2 weeks of painful lumps on her legs. The lumps persist for several days and make it difficult for her to go to work as a waitress. She is a college student in Ohio where she has lived her whole life. She has …
Learn about the differences between polymyositis and dermatomyositis the Medcomic way.
Illustrated by Jorge Muniz and music by Neil Bobenhouse.
Image credit: Medcomic.com
It seems now as if every day and every month is associated with a “national day” or an “awareness month.” Some such as “national taco day” may be less important than others, well depending on one’s priorities. Although many illnesses now also have a dedicated day or month, many of these diseases will go unnoticed. They will rarely be discussed — that is until a celebrity or someone in the …
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