Caregiving for COVID at home: a physician story

Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on [KevinMD](. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [The Guide to Secure Messaging in Healthcare](. Learn strategies for keeping your data secure, how to make secure messaging part of a larger communication system, ways to roll out your solution, and more. [Read the ultimate guide to defining]( and deploying secure messaging in health care. As many patients [fear in-office visits]( during COVID-19, physicians should consider strategies to encourage patients to [come in when necessary](. Get a free copy of [Money Insights for Physicians]( which teaches doctors the proven path to move from high income to high net worth! [Take the F3 Assessment]( and find out where you’re at along the path to financial freedom. [The Podcast by KevinMD](. 15 minutes a day 7 days a week. Concise, digestible, and filled with information, insight, and inspiration. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your [favorite podcast app](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Feb 8, 2021 [COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people with severe allergies]( The intensive care unit nurse was worried the COVID-19 vaccine would kill her. In the past, just minutes after getting the influenza vaccine, she had hives, wheezing, and throat swelling. Her life-threatening reaction only resolved after an epinephrine injection and monitoring in the emergency room. She vowed never to get another vaccine. With the arrival […] [Caregiving for COVID at home: a physician story]( The day after Christmas, my husband Paul developed a fever, chills, and cough. On Sunday, he tested positive. He probably got sick helping a family member, but we’ll never be certain how the virus invaded our home, rendering us hostage for weeks. Since I wasn’t sick, I tried working from home. In between patients, I’d […] [Talk to me. Talk to us. Talk about That Topic.]( This topic always takes me back. To the time my life stopped and flipped upside down. I never understood how people could drop to their knees in public and have a moment of agony or grief. I guess the pain I had felt up to that moment was not strong enough to knock me to […] [COVID vaccine battles are as strange as the disease]( During these early weeks of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the response across the country has been, well, odd. Unlike any other vaccine that’s been administered, the reactions to this one have ranged from elation to envy to fear to anger. On December 14, 2020, Sandra Lindsey, a nurse in a hospital in Queens, New York, was […] [In the midst of our COVID crisis, we must learn to take care of ourselves. And each other.]( Applause every evening, volunteers sewing masks, personal phone calls, and check-ins – these are a few examples of the support that helped us get through the initial, brutal onslaught of COVID in New York City last spring. A year later, many hospitals across the country are full to bursting, the staff is exhausted, and medical […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Thousands of physicians are browsing this job board](. They love its selection of over 12,000 openings across the U.S. [Physicians are finding opportunities they almost missed](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Changes to radiation oncology offer hope when there was none]( Radiation oncology has been around for a century, and, at first, advancements in the field came rapidly. The evolution of X-rays and CT scans to inform treatment. Intraoperative radiation therapy. Technology that allows for tailored dose distribution. But for the past 20 years, the pace of innovations seemed to slow. We remained stymied, for instance, […] [The destructive health consequences of political polarization]( A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD. Political divisiveness has always been part of the fabric of America. Even as our Founders laid the groundwork for the United States, they understood the challenges of seeking to assemble a unified and functional country from such a wide geographic and culturally diverse […] [Prison medicine during the pandemic [PODCAST]]( “Rumor has it that the SARS-CoV 2 virus was brought into prison via inmates who were on a work-release program. Allegedly, they boarded a city bus with a driver who was ill. From there, it crept beyond the work-release camp and wafted over to the general prison population. The pandemic had reached this impenetrable fortress; […] [How could a patient die from anesthesia for a colonoscopy?]( Every death related to anesthesia is a tragedy; even more so when a minor procedure such as a colonoscopy leads to a completely unexpected death. Everyone knows that open heart surgery carries a mortality risk, but few of us walk into the hospital for a colonoscopy thinking that death is a plausible outcome. We know […] [Maybe life is happening: the power of language in patient hand-offs]( “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” – George Orwell The “difficult” family At 2 a.m., on my first night shift as a pediatric resident, a patient, Casey, transferred from another hospital. She had a rare, progressive chronic illness, was medically complex, and was currently receiving treatment for an acute systemic infection. […] [Reflecting on the tragedy of physician suicide]( Recent events in our mid-west region prompted us to bring the topic of physician suicide forward with our residents and fellows. They received this information in a weekly mindfulness email they receive as part of our internal coaching program: Losing a colleague or friend to suicide is a tragedy to those who survive and it […] [Thank you pediatric medical professionals [PODCAST]]( “As the mother of a child born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, besides going through four open-heart surgeries and coding, my son has also had eight abdominal surgeries, including a Ladd’s procedure and resection of his colon. William also functions without his appendix, spleen, and gall bladder. In addition to every kind of therapy imaginable, […] [Physicians: How taking care of the backlog and can help take care of yourself]( A backlog is a terrible thing, isn’t it? It’s certainly something that we often choose to hide as physicians. We use it as a source of shame, guilt, frustration, and overwhelm. Many physicians have had their jobs threatened, or even lost their jobs, due to mountains of unfinished charts or inboxes. When you understand this, […] [An orthopedic surgeon wants to do more]( Sometimes I think. Sometimes I think and nothing happens. That seems to happen a lot during this period of the second wave of COVID-19 that has hit my hospital. Netcare Kingsway Hospital is a community private hospital and has been overwhelmed in caring for patients with COVID-19. Sometimes I think and something happens. That’s when […] [The hug that reminded a cardiologist of the joy in medicine]( The cardiologist was called STAT to the ED for a 50-year-old man with an acute STEMI. The man arrested eight times in the ED, each time successfully resuscitated. He finally stabilized to where he could be moved to the cardiac cath lab. The cardiologist quickly met with the wife and told her the plans and […] [Overcoming PPE barriers to compassionate communication]( In the COVID-19 environment, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) is the norm for clinicians. Monthly, U.S. health care workers use 89 million masks. While these masks help prevent the spread of disease, PPE creates barriers to effective communication that is requiring clinicians to learn new techniques for interacting with patients. Learning new verbal and non-verbal […] [Stop chasing the eternal search for happiness]( I have been searching for something all of my life. Some would call it happiness; others call it success. No matter what I achieve, the goalposts seem to keep moving. Perhaps this sounds familiar. Maybe you realize that it is all an endless chase. Maybe you are tired of: not being completely at peace being […] [Being a neonatologist and a mother [PODCAST]]( “Being a neonatologist and a mother is living with the knowledge that the question ‘What would you do?’ could so easily become real, not hypothetical. And so what would I do? I don’t know, heartbroken mama. Because I feel too much, but I don’t feel enough. Because I know too well, but I don’t know […] [If I listen hard enough, each patient has a sacred story to share]( From a medical perspective, ‪Mr. G’s case seemed straightforward. His GFR had fallen. His kidneys were failing. Dialysis would be required as the best treatment for his renal condition. When I met with Mr. G later in the afternoon, he was in despair. He could not see how dialysis would save his life and expressed […] [Vaccination and trust in science and patience is the only way out of this pandemic]( A COVID-free future is within our reach – a future where it’s safe to hug again and where our smiles no longer need to be hidden behind a mask. To get there, we will need a robust vaccination drive. We will need Canadians to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. But we will also […] [The ideal elective surgery during a pandemic]( Back in April 2020, it was all hands on deck in caring for COVID-19 patients at our medical center in Brooklyn, NY, where the number of severe COVID-19 cases was even higher than in neighboring Manhattan. The 710-bed teaching hospital had been entirely transformed into a COVID-19 care facility, increasing to more than 1,400 beds, […] [The culture of silence works against medical professionals’ wellness]( This excerpt is adapted from Stress in Medicine: Lessons Learned Through My Years as a Surgeon, from Med School to Residency, and Beyond. I will never forget the moment when I learned that a longtime physician friend had taken his own life. My friend was younger than I, had been in practice for five years, […] [A physician’s mid-career and mid-life success]( A mid-life crisis, re-assessment, re-envision. Hollywood’s cliché version epitomized by Chevy Chase driving the “family truckster” while flirting with Christie Brinkley and later trying to skinny-dip with her. Of course, it is more than that. Researcher, Brene Brown, calls it the unraveling. It is a pause. Turning off auto-pilot. A re-evaluation of goals. Clinically, it […] [Why the preservation of the Affordable Care Act should matter to you [PODCAST]]( “Is the ACA perfect? Not by a long shot. In Kentucky, where I live, there are only 2 insurers selling individual policies on the exchange. A Silver plan for my husband and myself costs $1,800 per month in premiums, with a $13,600 deductible and an out-of-pocket maximum of $14,600. Therefore, the total exposure every year […] --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](