Recently, one of my clinic patients asked me to administer his intramuscular medication injection. I appreciated the vote of confidence but had to tell him he was mistaken in thinking that my skill would surpass that of our nurses’. “Trust me,” I told him. “You’re in better hands with them.” It reminded me of the…
Comments closed**update March 27, 2022: Awarded the 2021 Doximity Op-Med Editor’s Pick** originally published on Doximity’s Op-Med under the title When a Patient Wants to ‘Try Everything,’ Including Pseudoscience My patient* wanted to “do everything.” To her, this meant flying to another state and paying out-of-pocket for I.V. alternative therapy. Her cancer was rare, and the…
Comments closed**update 12/31/21 – This essay was the most read Op-Ed on Doximity of 2021! (originally published in Doximity’s Op-Med on 2/22/21 under the title I Left Medicine For a Year. Here’s What I Learned, and Why I’m Coming Back) Before COVID-19, I left the practice of medicine for what would turn out to become an…
8 Comments*originally published online 12/24/20 in the International Journal of Academic Medicine as part of The women in medicine summit: An evolution of empowerment in Chicago, Illinois, October 9 and 10, 2020. (Perspective #4). “She didn’t even smile.” This was the startling reply to my open-ended question with which I had learned to start all second-opinion…
Comments closedIt’s April, which means it’s early in the pandemic, although we don’t know that yet. We’re all hunkering down because we hope it might be over soon. One night, I pull up an interview on the small screen of my smartphone. A woman reporter is interviewing a woman physician about COVID-19 — each in their own homes,…
Comments closedTL;DR: Vulnerability as a Superpower Last year, I had to renew my state medical license, a routine task. I completed the requisite online forms, paid the fees, clicked “submit,” and didn’t think about it again. Until the renewal didn’t come. As the deadline loomed nearer, and after several unreturned emails and phone calls, I finally…
Comments closedMedical oncologists often find ourselves needing to advise people who do not look or feel sick to take chemotherapy. This concept, of course, is what we call adjuvant therapy — using chemotherapy in healthy people as an adjunct to surgery to increase the cure rate from surgery alone. I’ve been thinking about the concept of…
Comments closed(on why anyone would choose to be an oncologist) Oncologists are often asked our motivation for entering the specialty. My standard response is to smile, and state that I followed a calling. But to explain that calling is a longer story that I’ve never shared. Twenty years later, here is my first attempt to do…
Comments closedupdate 11/2020: recipient of an Honorable Mention Award in the 2020 Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (print/online article category)! My patient is middle-aged, morbidly obese, with undiagnosed (until now) alcoholic cirrhosis, and a vaguely documented history of cardiac disease—per the chart “noncompliant” with medications. “Noncompliant” in this case turns out to mean he had no insurance…
Comments closedIn the transcendent memoir “In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope” pulmonary/critical care physician Rana Awdish is seven months pregnant when she develops sudden onset of excruciating abdominal pain. She senses that the problem is not obstetrical, but something else — something visceral. But instead of being whisked…
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