In Episode 28 How to do the ER (Better than I did), I shared a real story from my own life—as both a physician and a patient—about a 24-hour hospital stay that didn’t go quite as it should have. Along the way, I highlighted what we…
Surviving illness is just the beginning — the real work that nobody seems to talk about is health maintenance. Personally, I find myself thinking about my health all of the time. After two bouts of cancer, heart failure, and some arthritis and…
Being a patient in today’s convoluted healthcare system can feel lonely and often infuriating. While it’s often hard to know who is responsible for that, recent headlines have revealed the healthcare system’s ugly underbelly: that …
Fabric curtains don’t make great walls. In my pod in the pre-op area I can hear everything going on in the pods around me. We were all brought back here at once, like driving cattle – herded down the long hospital corridor, through the d…
In Episode 22 I talked with Dr. Karen Leitner, of Karen Leitner MD Coaching about why doctors are sometimes dissatisfied with how practicing medicine feels today. Moral injury, a term coined after the Vietnam War, describes how someone feels when th…
Well. I'm a 52 year old retired physician, have been a pretty sick patient many times, and STILL today struggle with navigating the health system regularly. So if I am having trouble, how are young adults supposed to learn to do this? Sure, they're …
As I researched for this two part episode, I was not too surprised to be reminded of how expensive medications in the US are for patients, but I was surprised by how much variance there is in cost from one person to the next, one plan to the next, e…
Let's face it, it totally sucks to have cancer, that's just a basic truth. Having people around you to help in various ways is really essential, whether it's family or friends or both. As I mentioned in the episode with Laura and Melissa, there are …
It does not surprise me, *almost* ever, when I hear stories of medical errors. I recall being so busy in my last years of practice that my head would spin during the day from the pace. Doctors are pulled in so many directions at once - patient care,…
I learned so much talking with Dr. Leitner on the topic of burnout among physicians. I wasn’t really that familiar with terms like moral injury, learned helplessness, (other) before this.If you simply use the term burnout, it implies that th…
When I was a kid, I would go on house calls with my Dad, who was an internist in Chicago. We'd literally go into peoples' homes and he would pull the patient aside into a private room and have a visit. I was usually left in the kitchen or living roo…
As you've heard by now in the last few episodes, a doctor's life is pretty hectic and challenging in today's healthcare system. Most of us are really just trying to get through our day. So when I hear stories of doctors that took extra time out of t…
"Seeing too much of the chicken" is the phrase my husband uses for those situations where you just know a little too much. That's what it's like to be a doctor-patient sometimes - you (think you) know too much for your own good. This can lead to get…
When you're a patient in the hospital, it's especially hard to see outside of your own sphere of discomfort and fear. It's as if the experience completely takes over your mind and it's hard to think of anything else. But sometimes an opportunity ari…
These first two regular episodes shed light on a day in the life of both a patient (Ep 1) and then a doctor (Ep 2). Because I fundamentally believe in the utmost significance of the doctor-patient relationship, I hope that these two episodes shed so…
It's almost here: Dr. Patient podcast. This idea has been brewing in the back of my mind for a couple of years, ever since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in September of 2020. That, combined with other health problems that I've had over recent y…
