The more I looked, the more I began to see. The more I saw, the more the pieces of this complex pediatric puzzle began to fall into place. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Looking through a glass darkly, then seeing face to face — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Moral distress: when clinicians feel they cannot do the ethically appropriate thing. Midnight medicine: when difficult decisions must be made with no time for consultation and critique. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Midnight Medicine: A time when difficult decisions must be made — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
She sits quietly on her mother’s lap. A child’s blanket is draped over the crook of her left arm, the corner clutched tightly in her left hand close to her mouth. The right arm lies pronated across her thigh. The mother strokes her hair, whispering into her ear. Together they form a portrait which might have been painted by Mary Cassatt. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — An Unlikely Afternoon Hero: When being there is good enough — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
I watch them go — a new family I will most likely never see again. They’ve played by the rules, but got burned by the system. Lose your job, lose your health insurance, lose your doctor. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Transitional Medicine: Patients who are just passing through — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
In pediatrics, things start small, then grow and develop. Like all things in pediatrics, the lesion that appeared on this child’s calf had started small as well. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Growth and development: In pediatrics, everything starts small — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
“It’s been a tough year,” she says. “I’ve got my mother living with me now. I didn’t think it would be quite like it turned out. She’s 85, and with frontal lobe dementia, she requires constant care. But what can I do? She’s my mother. And then there’s Meg—I’ve still got Meg at home. You remember Meg—” more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Generational Medicine: The year of the great-grandmother — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Every seed germinates in its own time. Some of the seeds that we plant might lie dormant for months, perhaps even years. Sometimes we might even forget that we planted them. But then one fine day suddenly we see the first tiny shoots unfolding in the light. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — The art of medicine: Having faith in the seeds we plant — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
It was late winter, the height of RSV season that year. I stepped in to see my last patient of the afternoon, a 6-week-old baby girl brought in by her father for cough and congestion. “She’s not breathing right,” the father said, dispensing with formalities.
I clocked her respiratory rate at 66. The child lay on the exam table in obvious distress, chest and abdomen seesawing back and forth, retractions defining each rib with every short, rapid breath. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Goethe’s Erlkoenig: A poetic drama at the close of day — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
According to current theory, people with ADHD have a relative deficiency of dopamine, an essential neurotransmitter in the brain. Adequate levels of dopamine are necessary to induce incentive and motivation. Stimulant medications boost dopamine levels and enhance the ability to stay focused on task.
But in our modern psychopharmacological approach to the treatment of ADHD we have all but forgotten the environment. more»
The heart has its reasons, which the reason knows not. —Pascal
It has been a particularly trying week. Cracks appear at the edges of my well-ordered world: too many patients, not enough time to devote to difficult cases, staffing issues at the office. Moreover, I feel a cold coming on, a growing discomfort in my chest.
Now here before me sits a 14-year-old boy, my last patient of this busy Friday afternoon. more»
Interested readers can now access my latest Humane Medicine column — Heartache: When the diagnosis is just a click away — recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
