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Photo: OliBac I saw a patient the other week who complained of intolerable hot flashes for the last several months. They were happening day and night, often awakening her from sleep, and after a series of questions, I realized they were significantly interfering with the quality of her life. So I suggested she begin [...] Photo: kevindooley We humans are often distinguished from other animals by our ability to make and use tools. We got things rolling with the wheel and haven’t stopped since. Now we have supercranes to build skyscrapers, cars and airplanes to move us from here to there, and screwdrivers to put things together. The problem [...] Photo: Steve Snodgrass First aid is defined as the immediate care given to an acutely injured or ill person. It can literally be life-saving so it behooves all of us to know some basic principles. What follows are some rules that cover common conditions and general practices: Photo: scubadive67 WARNING: The time required to read this post will violate my five-minute rule—by a wide margin. This isn’t so much to punish readers for my decision to read all 1,163 pages of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (HR3590) and all 337 pages of the “Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act [...] Photo: Cl@re Bear A few years ago, a patient of mine was diagnosed with lung cancer. A metastatic work up revealed a small mass in his liver that had the radiographic appearance of a benign liver cyst. But in the setting of a newly diagnosed lung cancer, we couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a [...] Photo: Photos8.com Eating right, exercising, avoiding the sun or using sunscreen, moderating alcohol consumption, abstaining from tobacco use, getting mammograms, Pap smears, colonoscopies—almost every measure we’re asked to take to safeguard our future health is difficult. It’s a strange paradox that we have to work in some way, to expend energy, and experience discomfort [...] “He was just…” My patient groped for the right words. “…pretty great.” She was talking about her boyfriend—or rather, her ex-boyfriend. He’d recently ended their relationship, and she’d come to me now, several months later, unable to shake herself out of the funk in which she’d been left by his leaving. Surprisingly, she harbored no ill feelings [...] Every once in a while (or perhaps more frequently than I’d like to admit) I find myself overwhelmed by my own life. Taking care of patients, blogging, writing, maintaining relationships (with my wife, son, family, friends, and co-workers), exercising, practicing Buddhism, marketing my writing, answering pages, answering emails, handling unforeseen crises, cleaning out our cats’ [...] When I was a third-year medical student rotating for the first time on a general medicine service inpatient ward, my team admitted a thirty-year-old woman in acute congestive heart failure. That a thirty-year-old was in congestive heart failure was unusual enough. Even more shocking was the cause: an echocardiogram revealed a tumor [...] “Maybe this is all from anxiety.” “You think? I mean, yeah, I am anxious, but it feels more like it’s from the symptom than causing the symptom.” “Still.” My colleague and friend—and physician—and I were discussing the sudden onset of intense nausea I’d started to experience roughly three weeks after I’d been released from the hospital, as I [...] |
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