What is a Previvor?
While I treat breast cancer every day, discuss genetic testing and make recommendations regarding preventative surgery, the term “Previvor” was quite new to me. I received a Facebook post from a friend who had just gone through a prophylactic double mastectomy. In her post, she stated, “I am now a previvor!”. Seeing your healthy friend go […]
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Surgeon & Her Sister Mad Over a Mammogram
It’s normal to get frustrated with your siblings but I never thought I would get mad at my sister over a mammogram. A couple months ago I called her and she was angry telling me she received a notice in the mail that she was due for a mammogram. She didn’t want to go and […]
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Self-Care Struggles: When the Doctor Becomes the Patient
I think many of us struggle with self-care. We are great at taking care of others but not really good at taking care of ourselves. Eventually this catches up to us. I was recently reminded of how important it is to care for ourselves or we are no good to anyone. After the pain in my […]
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Teach and You Will Learn
“In learning you will teach. In teaching you will learn.” – Phil CollinsLast week, my aunt passed away. We had the funeral on Saturday and my uncle gave the Eulogy as a reflection of the gospel, the Parable of the Talents. This story is about a master who entrusts his property to his servants as […]
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Operating from Memories: Life, Love, & Loss
This week I am writing about me and for me. This blog is written as kind of a catharsis, a release of things I have been holding in and compartmentalizing in my brain. I had been feeling off for the last week or so. I was procrastinating, not too organized and just feeling not […]
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Behind a Physician Blog: I’m Actually Really Nice
Thank you all for the kind reception to my website and weekly blogs. Many of you have asked why I started doing this. I have many reasons, but most importantly, I want to show who I really am as a person and physician, not how I have sometimes been portrayed. Many of us have been […]
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How to Embrace Slow
When work is slow it isn’t easy. I am a typical general surgeon. We like to be busy!!! When I say busy, we thrive on adrenaline, challenge and the ability to fix problems and help our patients. Our training is demanding, hectic without much free time. We multitask and have many thoughts in our head […]
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Add a Dose of Kindness in Healthcare
Today I am inspired to write about being kind. Unfortunately, the world of medicine is not always kind, nor is our society today. While I was recently on call, I had the pleasure of being the sixth doctor called to admit a patient. It was 11pm on a Friday. The patient had a new complicated […]
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Your Doctor DOES Care
Have you ever been to the doctor and wondered, “What just happened?” Did the doctor seem to stare at the computer, seem distracted, or like they weren’t listening or even cared? I became a surgeon because I wanted to help people. Unfortunately, medicine has become more of a business. Physicians are faced with time constraints, productivity […]
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Doctor Go and Grieve
I was working in a busy general surgery practice of seven surgeons. My partner’s and I had full practices and dedicated everything we had to our patients. We were always on the go. As doctors, we deal with death and grieving on a daily basis.One of my partner’s fathers was quite ill. His father was […]
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