Dear Patient, I heard you were asking my staff about what I do all day when I’m not in the clinic and why I work part-time. This is an important question and one I’d like to answer. When I’m not in the clinic, I see my vaccinated teens off to school each weekday morning. Then,…
Comments closedIf you want to be taken seriously, you have to have serious hair. That line has lived in my brain since 1988. I was fifteen years old, and I was convinced Melanie Griffith’s character in Working Girl had revealed one of life’s secret truths. In the movie, she utters the line as she directs her…
Comments closedAs a medical oncologist of almost 20 years, I’ve seen my share of patient-blaming stigma. People are indicted for their cancers in various ways: “They ate too much sugar.” “They were obese.” “They were a smoker.” “It runs in their family.” I find the current culture of attributing severe COVID-19 illness and deaths to “preexisting conditions”…
Comments closedMany of us, if not all, learned in our medical training about the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about grief during the pandemic and how it seems that what we might be missing is collective grief. But what could collective grief look like for the world?…
Comments closedHow body image and unhealthy societal ideals affect women undergoing cancer treatment “I want to stop this treatment.” These are not the words I’m expecting to hear from my patient. She has advanced stage IV cancer, and the third-line endocrine (antihormonal) therapy I recommended a few months ago is working. The imaging shows a significant…
Comments closedAs a medical oncologist, science denialism from my patients is all too familiar to me. Cancer misinformation is, unfortunately, endemic in our society. After 18 years as a cancer doctor, it sadly doesn’t come as a surprise anymore when a patient declines treatment recommendations and instead opts for “alternative” treatment. When it happens, I explain…
Comments closedSafety in aviation has been compared with safety in healthcare. As the only physician in a family of career pilots, I think about this often. While the aviation industry has been used as a safety model at the systems level for healthcare, I have not seen any data comparing burnout between the two industries. I…
1 CommentIn last week’s blog post, I wrote a line that’s been stuck in my mind: “Shame, the ever-present companion of medical culture, once again getting in the way of an honest conversation.” Shame wasn’t the main topic of that piece, but I think my subconscious was telling me I needed to write more on it. I…
2 CommentsA memory from before the pandemic came to me the other day of a time when we gathered in clinic to witness patients’ bell-ringing ceremonies, signifying the end of their cancer treatment. I didn’t always make it to these. Often, I’d be with another patient already. But there was one, in particular, I’d set aside…
Comments closed**update March 27, 2022: Runner-up for the 2021 Doximity Op-Med Pathos Award** In April 2021, I came across a Twitter thread started by Dr. Mark Reid (@medicalaxioms), which began as follows: “One thing we don’t teach you in med school or residency is how to call in sick.” Dr. Reid shared a story from his past about…
Comments closed
