“Are you getting your period?”

“I get annoyed with [my husband] when I overreact to something and he retorts: ‘are you getting your period?’” my friend says. Just imagine what it would be like if we treated men the same way. “You’re only mad because you have blood dripping from your penis.  Not because of what I did.” “You always … Continue reading

On Smoking and Death

“I don’t want to quit smoking,” my patient says with her face firmly set.  I’m taken aback. “I don’t think that’s true,” I say,” you just told me you quit, then you started again because your brother and grandson died in the past few months and you’re struggling with the loss.  I don’t think it’s … Continue reading

Anxiety

Anxiety ranks among my least favorite diagnoses.  In medicine, we have a long history of blaming a variety of diseases on anxiety.  Even in the recent past we attributed gastric ulcers to stress until it was proven that a bacteria that lives in the gut is responsible.  Indeed, who would have thought:  a bacteria living … Continue reading

Doctors Can Only Give So Much

editorial in SLC Tribune I called it “The Depressed Doctor” in homage to David Foster Wallace and his short story, “The Depressed Person.”  The SLC Tribune titled it: “Doctors Can Only Give So Much.” Here’s a link to the Schwartz foundation and more about Schwartz Rounds.