A surprise pregnancy in medical school

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I attribute my obliviousness to the surgery I’d gone through only months before: […] [It is wrong to exploit physicians’ compassion]( When a patient comes to see me for a migraine headache, I know that they will leave feeling 100 percent better. They will finally be rid of that pounding, nauseating pain in their head, and they will be happy. And that makes me happy. Doctors derive great joy from helping their patients. In addition to […] [Why the Lancet’s editorial on Kashmir is unhelpful]( If Rudolph Virchow’s observation that “medicine is a social science and politics is nothing but medicine writ large” is true, then medicine is bias writ large because politics is nothing but bias on steroids. Virchow’s maxim is now adopted by medical journals which freely mix medicine with politics. No journal has taken this mixology to […] [More than three hours late, but somehow still on time]( The sound of a clock, hung haphazardly on a colorless cold wall, ticks repetitively — tick, tick, tick. Time continues to pass as my appointment scheduled for three hours ago seems like it will never come. I scheduled this appointment three months ago, and here I sit three hours later. The irony bounces around the […] [Life hacks from a 9-month-old infant]( The problem Sometimes, you reach a stage in life where each day has become predictable. Despite success, you slide into a rut. The status quo doesn’t cut it. Your patients are interesting, but not stimulating enough. Your staff is well-trained, but not helpful enough. You make a good living, but you’re not earning enough. The […] [Why physicians should have golden parachutes]( Early into my career as an emergency physician, I was seated in the department with a colleague when I inquired about one of our co-workers I had not seen in a while. “Oh, she’s on the mommy track,” my colleague said and picked up another chart. To me, selecting a career path that sacrificed traditional […] [The story of a hospital collapse and how small towns were devastated]( The money was so good in the beginning, and it seemed it might gush forever, right through tiny country hospitals in Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and into the coffers of companies controlled by Jorge A. Perez, his family, and business partners. It was his “secret sauce,” the rotund Miami entrepreneur would smilingly tell people in their […] [What does evidence-based psychotherapy really mean?]( When a mental health clinic, online referral service, or private practice offers “evidence-based” psychotherapy, that certainly sounds like a selling point. It suggests solid science supports the therapy offered — and that competing services lack this support. But what does this phrase really mean? “Evidence-based medicine” first appeared in the medical literature in 1991. It […] [3 lessons learned from the deep end of the pool]( Over the past few summers, I’ve been noticing that when it came to swimming in the deep end of the pool, I was fearful. Gone was the fearlessness of my youth, when I’d venture out, take risks and somehow just know I’d make it back to the shallow end where I could firmly stand on […] [It’s time to seriously study gun violence]( I have been working on gun violence prevention for the past two years. After the Las Vegas shooting, I worked with a fellow medical student to create a course teaching medical students about gun violence and how it relates to medicine. We taught future physicians, the ones who will be responsible for treating gun injuries, […] [The costly decision of delaying surgery]( It was a common enough reason for someone to have a CT scan. The order read, “Abdominal pain, colon cancer resected in January.” It was now March, only two months post-surgery. Yet the patient’s CT scan showed a number of large masses in the liver, consistent with metastatic cancer. I compared the current study to […] [Just because EMRs can document everything doesn’t mean they should]( It’s always kind of a surprise when you read a patient’s chart, and you see an examination of a body part they just don’t have. Just the other day, I was reading a consult note on a patient of mine who had been seen by a subspecialist for evaluation of a serious issue, and I […] [The sensitive topic of physical contact during exams]( Touch is a sensitive thing. No pun is intended here, but whether and how we touch our patients deserves our careful thought and deliberation. So much interpersonal contact these days is virtual, with emojis, abbreviations and whole words thrown around as substitutes for human contact. Think XOXO and, “hugs and kisses.” And when people do […] [What to consider before undergoing stem cell treatment or banking cells]( It can be difficult to tease out the evidence-based science amidst the claims of successful adult stem cell-based treatments for a range of health problems from joint pain to Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, and spinal cord injury. Even a number of well-respected medical centers now offer patients regenerative medicine treatments that use the patient’s own […] [Will separating obstetrics from gynecology help specialist burnout?]( At the end of a long table covered with hors d’oeuvres and a birthday cake, I struck up a conversation with three primary care physicians. I was hungry for their opinions. Inside the crowded apartment, we spoke for some 20 minutes about the systemic and cultural causes of burnout in primary care—a conversation that informed the […] [3 myths about financial freedom]( Every July, we have some time to think about our independence and freedom. We also celebrate and spend time to be grateful for those that helped us achieve that. Everyone reading this certainly has a lot to be grateful for. But I also know that there are those that might feel a bit trapped in […] [Doctors have little clue about what actually goes on in their colleagues’ offices]( When I meet patients in the office, our conversations do not focus exclusively on the medical issue at hand. Of course, if you come to see me with a stomach ache, at some point, I will direct the dialogue toward your abdomen. Often, our conversations are far removed from livers and pancreases, and deal with […] [Should hospital systems post physician salaries?]( One of my coworkers who grew up in India told me that their teachers in grade school would post everyone’s scores in the hallway after every exam. This comparison of grades and objective testing further extended to cities and even regions in the country. There are people going through the hierarchical ranks with “gold medals” […] [Is medicine really a model family-friendly profession?]( An article in the New York Times touting medicine as a family-friendly profession has stirred up critics who say it denies the reality of career sacrifice and gaps in leadership and pay that female physicians face. Writer Claire Cain Miller profiled female doctors whose specialties afford them flexible work hours that make it easier to balance their professional […] [MKSAP: 64-year-old woman with severe COPD]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 64-year-old woman is evaluated during a posthospital visit for severe COPD with an FEV1 of 30% of predicted. She has been admitted three times during the last year with acute exacerbations characterized by cough, increased purulent sputum production, and dyspnea. She […] [These medical students support Medicare for all. Here’s why.]( The most difficult part of our first year of medical school wasn’t memorizing anatomy or mastering the patient interview, but seeing firsthand how broken our current health care system is. We pay twice as much as other wealthy nations for health care, but receive some of the worst outcomes. Many factors contribute to this dysfunction, […] [Do physicians feel guilt and embarrassment more often than they admit?]( I was an intern, doing a rotation in the coronary care unit (CCU) of a large urban hospital. It was very challenging: The patients had complex medical issues, and my fellow residents and I were given lots of responsibility for their care. Still, I felt I was finally getting the hang of residency. One of […] [Today’s medicine is not the medicine I signed up for]( Today’s medicine is not the medicine I signed up for. I am a Xennial. Sandwiched between generation X and millennials, I don’t really belong to either. I didn’t grow up with the technological advancements that the millennial generation enjoy. I grew up with corded telephones, large box televisions, and without a computer in the house. […] [How nurse practitioners can expand abortion access]( It has been a savage few months for reproductive rights, with 12 states passing 26 bills to ban abortion, including measures that ban abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy, as well as attempting to outlaw safe methods of abortion. In the face of this extreme, unprecedented wave of attacks, several states pursued an […] --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](