New posts are available every Monday and can be read in under 5 minutes.
|
Posted by Alex Lickerman  Print  Email to a friend  Photo: Stephen Brace This last summer, my wife and I had a fight. As with many fights between married couples, the surface issue was inconsequential but housed an important issue underneath. I’d accidentally burned the hamburgers I was grilling for our dinner (because we hadn’t cleaned our barbecue for some time, grease had accumulated, which increased the barbecue temperature as it burned). When I placed the charred hockey puck burgers in front of her, she became annoyed (having warned me about the grease). When I apologized, she said nothing, and I became angry that she was still annoyed with me. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  Photo: zoutedrop A few years ago, a close friend of mine was struggling with his job. He worked in a large corporation he couldn’t stand: unethical business practices, employee backstabbing, and sexual harassment all seemed to occur on a regular basis. He wanted out. Not only that, for years he’d harbored a secret dream of starting his own business. Driven by his growing disgust with his company’s culture, he made a determination to do just that. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  Photo: Josep Ma. Rosell When I was a fourth-year medical student, I once did a month-long rotation in the ER. One night a woman came in who we decided needed some lab work. When I let her know we needed to draw her blood, she began to tremble visibly. “I’m scared of needles,” she whispered to me. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  Photo: oddsock I’ve had one panic attack in my life. It happened when I was a first-year medical student and taking my first biochemistry mid-term exam. Everyone agreed that all our teacher’s lectures had been virtually incomprehensible. And unlike most of my classmates, who’d majored in biochemistry or biology in college, I’d majored in English, so the material was almost all entirely new to me. I remember opening the test, reading the first question, and thinking I had no idea what it was even asking. So I turned the page to the second question—only to find myself equally at a loss. I read all seven questions in turn, each time thinking that I’d be able to answer the next one, until I reached the last one and realized I couldn’t answer any of them. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  When I was a child, I was afraid to go to summer camp. Most kids found the prospect exciting and the experience fun, but I dreaded it. What would the activities be like? Who would my counselors be? What other kids were going? Would I be made to swim if I didn’t want to?
After a few days, the camp routine became just that—routine—and I settled down. But transition periods remained challenging for me throughout my adolescence. As adults, many of us still struggle with change—even good change, like starting a new job, moving to a nicer house, or getting married. Just what is it about transition periods we find so challenging and how can we get through them with less stress? Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  My wife and I are similar in a number of ways, but we’re completely opposite in how we feel about trying new things. I resist and often fear it, while she positively craves it. For as long as I can remember, I haven’t even liked trying new foods (an aversion my family and friends have alternately found amusing and consternating), preferring instead to eat what I already know I like. My wife, in contrast, almost never orders the same thing twice. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  Photo: emutree The following is an original work adapted from a short film I wrote with a long-time friend.
Athena stood before a full-length mirror in her drab one bedroom apartment, an attractive woman in her late twenties, staring at her image critically, scanning it for flaws. She was dressed in casual evening wear: short skirt and pantyhose with a low-cut blouse showing just a hint of cleavage. She took in a deep breath. This would have to do.
She exited her apartment building to find the night moonless and dark. Taking a quick glance to the left and right, she approached the bus stop at the corner. She looked up at the bus schedule and then down at her watch. The summer breeze blew warmly on her skin. On impulse, she decided to walk. Continue reading…
Posted by Alex Lickerman Print Email to a friend  Photo: Fiona MacGinty In January of 2007, I developed a mild stomach ache and general feeling of being unwell while at a Sunday brunch. Initially, the pain sat in the center of my abdomen just above my belly button, but gradually over the course of the day inched its way down into my right lower quadrant, causing me to wonder briefly if I’d developed acute appendicitis. However, by evening the pain had actually begun to improve so I dismissed the possibility; I’d never heard of a case of appendicitis resolving on its own without surgery. But mindful of the adage that the physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient, the next day I asked one of my physician friends to examine me. When he did, he found a fullness he didn’t like in my right lower quadrant and ordered a CT scan. To our mutual surprise, it showed that I had, in fact, developed acute appendicitis. Continue reading…
|
|
