Category Archives: Health and Illness

I’ve always been a bit paranoid about waking up for work, but not until this paediatric surgery rotation had I ever had a nightmare about sleeping in until the crack of dawn.

Was I ever glad to hear this, during my recent charting evaluation: “OK, first of all, we just do these things to pick up the worst of the worst, and, uh, the first thing we look at when we look … Continue reading →

They audit employees on their use of electronic records. They ask staff to admonish one another for discussing cases in elevators. They forbid the removal from the physical plant of research databases containing patient names. And then they make an … Continue reading →

You know you’re sick when the surgeon tells you that if your couple of cigarettes a day are a small pleasure to you, he won’t ask you to quit.

The best thing about working in a head and neck oncology clinic is meeting patients with missing eyes, throats, ears and even noses, whose voices sound like well-controlled burps, who cough thick mucus from holes in their chests, and who … Continue reading →