They call me Houston at the hospital. Sometimes they add “ Dr.” or “Dr. Miss” before Houston, but either way, I’m still Houston. As in, “Houston, we have a problem.” I work at a behavior health facility. I said I would work the trenches for a semester about 15 years ago and I’ve never left… Continue reading Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Dr. Rhonda Houston
Category: Patient Stories
Dear Diary
I was talking to a friend the other day about the fact that what we now call “blogs”, we used to call diaries. Then I said to her, “I should pull out the diaries that I kept in college and in medical school and see what my old self had to say.” And so I… Continue reading Dear Diary
I Coulda Been a Contender
It happened again today. A youngish man, age 59 (youth being relative these days) comes in for a consultation. His history began eighteen months ago when he started to notice hoarseness. Thinking he had laryngitis, he saw his primary care doctor. He was indeed diagnosed with laryngitis despite the fact that he had not been… Continue reading I Coulda Been a Contender
I am the Grocery Store Doctor
I hate supermarkets—those bright fluorescently lit mega-stores where you seem to walk for miles, filling your cart as you go while constantly rearranging the contents to avoid flattening of the perishable fruits and bread. There was a time ten years ago when the presence of three rapidly growing teenagers mandated the use of two carts… Continue reading I am the Grocery Store Doctor
The Things They Put on Their Skin
When patients start their radiation therapy, one of the side effects that we tell them to look for is a skin reaction. Depending on the area of the body treated, and the dose given, the skin reaction at the end of treatment ranges anywhere from a mild sunburned look all the way to what we… Continue reading The Things They Put on Their Skin
Showing a Little Restraint
For Jack Oberdorf In 1986, Hybritech released its first commercially available screening test for prostate cancer– the PSA test—triggering a torrent of newly diagnosed cases of this disease, and in turn, a flood of new technology to treat it, including the Da Vinci surgical robot, and proton beam radiation therapy. In recent years, however, the… Continue reading Showing a Little Restraint
Like a Freight Train
Sometimes, you can see cancer coming. What I mean is that when we sign up for that mammogram, or that PSA blood test, there has to be some tiny little part of us that says, “Ok, this time it’s my turn. This time I’m the one who’s going to get the call.” Sometimes the cancer… Continue reading Like a Freight Train
Rethinking heroism
For Elly I have mentioned in previous essays here that I do not treat pediatric patients–that I learned that I don’t have the temperament for it–but I never said why. The meeting in Boston brought back a flood of memories from the early days of my career, and it is time to revisit some of… Continue reading Rethinking heroism
Why I am Not a Psychiatrist #3
I have a friend that I will call Rhonda here for the sake of anonymity. Dr. Rhonda has a PhD in psychology, and works at a mental health facility here in town. When I started to write down some of my stories, she started to send me some of hers. Whereas I can be quite… Continue reading Why I am Not a Psychiatrist #3
The Things His Father Taught Him
If you had asked me before today, I would have told you that I was beyond being inspired by cancer stories. There are so many of them, and I have tried to share the ones that have been most meaningful to me with you. But today was different. Today, Teddy Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote… Continue reading The Things His Father Taught Him