I've been ready for it to be Friday since Monday afternoon. It's been a trying week, and as I came into the office this morning, I was readying myself to make it til 5 o'clock through sheer willpower. I charged up my computer and opened the electronic medical record. Welcoming me were 10 online messages from patients sitting in my inbox from overnight, some of them sent at 2 in the morning. I sighed, knowing my 2 cups of coffee I chugged this morning was not even going to be close enough.
Tag: Primary care
A Doctor’s Worst Fear: The Missed Diagnosis
This horrendous cold and flu season has been an exercise in running on auto-pilot. Running from room to room every 10-15 minutes has been a blur of declaring, "Virus - no antibiotics needed. Virus - no antibiotics needed. Ear infection - here's your amoxicillin. Flu - Tamiflu sucks and you're going to feel like dying for the next 7 days, sorry. Maybe take me up on the flu shot next year." This was my life for two weeks after making the mistake of not taking any time off Christmas/New Year's at the end of 2017. (Note to self: Worst . Idea . Ever. Take a vacation already!!!) Just as I was ready to go insane from the monotony, the palest toddler with the most crystal blue eyes brought everything to a screeching halt.
When Black Lives Matter and Doctoring Collide
When I started working in primary care, I expected my daily working life to consist of a lot of ear infections and talks about weight loss. What I didn't expect was to be hit by a daily onslaught of depression and anxiety, but after about 2 years in, it's pretty much become routine. However, last year I collided with anxiety in an entirely different form, rooted deeply in a controversial social issue: Black Lives Matter
You Always Remember Your First
You always remember your first. Your first video game console, first car, first boyfriend/girlfriend. I remember my first real patient as a med student, my first patient in my adult medicine clinic in residency. Today, I remember my first patient in private practice to die on me
When Doctors Lie
I lied to a patient today. It wasn't something I thought I'd ever do on purpose, but today I made the conscious decision to do so. And quite honestly, I have no regrets. What would compel me to do such a thing?  I always thought I'd be the doctor that would lay it all out there for patients - here's your diagnosis and here are the treatment options. Let's talk about what best fits in your life and what you're willing to do according to your values, not mine. And today, I totally threw that out the window.
Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems
When I turned 30 and had essentially completed everything on my bucket list, I was left with the crushing weight of my student loans as the last goal to tackle. Â I was able to walk away from undergrad without any student debt - I was fortunate to have gone to premed before skyrocketing tuition rates, had several scholarships and was lucky to have parents who had saved for higher education since I was born. Â But, after 4 years of med school and taking out the full amount that was offered, I ended up with $217,000, compounding at 6.55% interest. ...