The United States (US) healthcare system is a grotesque and ancient monster made of fragmented yet codependent parts. Some pieces are attached purposefully to the frame, intentionally welded in place, and many others are haphazardly stuck on like chewing gum to the sole of a shoe. It is impossible to comprehend this behemoth monstrosity in… Continue reading What’s the deal with the US healthcare system?
Tag: medicine
We’re all sort of the bad guys
The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has shocked many, bemused some, angered others, and brought all of us back to the decades old habit of lambasting private health insurance companies. There have been jokes about preexisting conditions and prior authorizations, hypocritical reminders from politicians about violence and politics, and patronizing lectures about how insurance… Continue reading We’re all sort of the bad guys
I am pro-life and so are you
I am pro-life and so are you. It is clear to me from the nuanced and conflicting poll data that nobody thinks these are easy questions with easy answers. Anybody who asks you to call yourself just pro-life or just pro-choice probably has a political agenda. We all know it’s more complicated than that. We all want to make the right choice for ourselves, our families, and our communities. We all know that choice is not the same thing for each person or for each circumstance.
I want freedom too.
The last several months have seen many COVID-19 vaccine milestones. Nationally, we’ve managed to crawl past the 50% vaccinated milestone, even if many rural counties are hovering at or below 40%. On November 2, the CDC recommended the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 through 11 . On November 4, the Occupational Health and Safety… Continue reading I want freedom too.
I should have been a lawyer
It is not a secret that my ambitions lie well beyond surgery. I chose to go into clinical medicine partly because I loved the job of being a physician, but mostly because I thought there was immense value in intimately understanding a system so broken. I also thought there was immense value in caring for… Continue reading I should have been a lawyer
Our Shot
It felt like staggering across a finish line. I looked around and saw hundreds of thousands of shadows. The martyrs, the victims of the virus, of our callousness, so many of them Black and Brown. The tens of thousands of study volunteers who offered to go first. I was carried to the finish line by… Continue reading Our Shot
A Time of Thanksgiving
I have sacrificed for you. My body. There is a persistent rash on my right chin, red and rubbed raw from 14 hour days in scratchy masks under fluorescent lights. My nose, and the noses of my colleagues, have been squished, pushed, bent, and infected by the augmented gas masks in which we sometimes fight… Continue reading A Time of Thanksgiving
Did you know that Florida and New York are different?
I’m so happy that tabloid journalism is hopping back on the COVID-19 complaint train. It’s so refreshing to read what communications majors think about public health and medicine and so comforting to see their opinions widely shared on social media. It makes wearing my N95 for 14 hours a day at work more bearable. I’m… Continue reading Did you know that Florida and New York are different?
It has to be someone
“He was mortified. He couldn’t believe he had missed it.” We had a new patient in the clinic, a 6-week-old healthy baby girl who had been struggling with feeding and latching. Her mother was not a new mother and had insisted over and over again to her pediatrician that something wasn’t right. On one occasion,… Continue reading It has to be someone
A Common Oath
My thoughts are pulled to dark eyes. Narrowed ever so slightly. Thoughtful. Skeptical. Mistrustful. We are in an exam room. In a clinic. Nondescript. I’ve seen these eyes in many different rooms. Different people, different places. Same eyes. One time, the eyes belonged to the aunt of one of my patients. She asked rapid fire… Continue reading A Common Oath
Nobody asked me... 