Category: Stories
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Last Day of 29th Grade!
Let me paint a picture that seems totally normal and reasonable… …until you actually stop to think about it. 13 years of early/primary/secondary education (K-12) 4 years of undergraduate education ($$) 3-4 years of medical education ($$$$) 1 year of internship (low wage, high stress, long hours, work for someone else) 2-6 years of residency…
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“The Way the System Is Going, I Didn’t See Any Other Solution Legally Available To Us.”
The quote in the headline is from Dr. John Wust, an obsetrician at Allina Health who voted with his colleagues to unionize in March 2023. Read the full article from Noam Scheiber of The New York Times here. When doctors are resorting to unionization, you know things are bad. At the time I was terminated…
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How Much Does This Cost?
When you’re a consumer, “How much does this cost?” should be a simple question with a simple answer. Inside Big Box Medicine, however, it rarely is. Why? Come on. They don’t want you to see those prices. And, who cares, right? Your health insurance will take care of it! Ha… I’m showing a bill from…
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Terminated Without Cause, Effective Immediately
Today is about amplifying someone else’s story. By reading Ashley Saucier, MD, MHA, FACEP, FAAP’s abrupt termination story, I hope others can learn, gain awareness and empathy, and start thinking about what they can do to make themselves more prepared to weather a storm like this if it happens. If something like this has happened to…
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A Big Thank You To Surgeons & Anesthesiologists
When this post goes up, I’ll be going down. I was born with a severely deviated nasal septum. The large circle (ignore the smaller one) in the image gives you an idea of this. (Black is air. Grey is soft tissue. White is bone.) The big grey thing going down the middle should be straight.…
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Do You Recognize These Bumps? — Demystifying Dyshidrotic Eczema
Do you recognize these exquisitely itchy little bumps? It’s time to demystify a troubling and sometimes mysterious rash called dyshidrotic eczema. In dermatology residency, many of us learn the term “tapioca-like vesicles” (we love using food-related descriptors) to describe the characteristic appearance of a type of eczema called dyshidrotic eczema (AKA pompholyx and acute recurrent…
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October Is Eczema Awareness Month!
Per the National Eczema Association, which is the driving force for an eczema community fueled by knowledge, strengthened through collective action, and propelled by the promise for a better future: “More than 31 million people in the U.S. have eczema and each one of them has a story to tell. For Eczema Awareness Month 2023,…
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🐕 Meet Pippa Princess! — The Sato Who Saved Me 🐕
Pippa was born December 3rd, 2014, somewhere in Puerto Rico. She’ll always be a proud Sato (look up the good folks at the Sato Project). When people inquire about the breed of that beautiful dog, we tell them she’s a pure bred Puerto Rican Street Dog. Originally “Nucita,” she was put up for adoption in…
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“Welcome Community Leaders” — Am I In The Right Place?
When I read “Welcome Community Leaders” on the Crystal Grand marquee, I thought, “Am in the right place?“ Yeah, I am. I recently had the pleasure of driving down to Wisconsin Dells, WI (IYKYK) for a community leadership summit generously sponsored by MBE CPAs and Brand House Marketing. There’s no secret society that grants you the title of…
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Hope Amidst Burnout and Despair: A Message Of For Physicians
Physicians are struggling and some are in despair, but there is plenty of room for hope. I’m grateful to the incomparably fierce physician advocate, Kim Downey, for putting this piece together and getting it published on a platform as widely read as KevinMD. It was published on September 17th, which is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day.…
