I am Passionate About…

A few days ago I decided that since I have been officially retired for two months, it was time to change my profile on the LinkedIn social network.  After all, the purpose of that network is to link business and professional people to potential opportunities and ideas.  I needed to let contacts know that I… Continue reading I am Passionate About…

Heisenberg and Your Prostate

Uncertainty Principle:  A principle in quantum mechanics holding that increasing the accuracy of measurement of one observable quantity increases the uncertainty with which another conjugate quantity may be known. Perhaps it is because I just got back from Albuquerque, a city which has become like a second home to me, that I have Heisenberg on… Continue reading Heisenberg and Your Prostate

Two Hundred and Nine Short Essays Later

  Here I am in Boston, on the eve of my very first writer’s conference, feeling a bit like an imposter.  After all, the extent of my writing so far has been this blog, apart from thousands of histories, physical exams and treatment plans over the last thirty-nine years since starting medical school.  It occurred… Continue reading Two Hundred and Nine Short Essays Later

A Different Kind of Mask

“I want them to live again to the point where pain becomes art.” Lawrence Durrell,  “Justine” I have always loved masks.  Near sighted likely from birth, a fact which was discovered significantly later, I never minded stumbling around our neighborhood on Halloween, my already deficient depth perception further stunted by my Bugs Bunny mask.  To… Continue reading A Different Kind of Mask

Primum Non Nocere

I don’t have much in the way of eyebrows.  They were victims of too much plucking back in the 1960’s and when you do that, sometimes they don’t grow back.  There’s a very nice woman in Solana Beach who shapes and darkens what I have left, infrequently, when I bother to think about it which… Continue reading Primum Non Nocere

The Way I See It

When it comes to surgery for cancer, having a “positive margin” is a bad thing.  It means that when the surgeon said he “got it all,” even though he meant it with all of his heart, likely he didn’t.  For a woman undergoing a lumpectomy for breast cancer, that positive margin means a re-excision of… Continue reading The Way I See It

The Techno-Freak in Me

At home, I have trouble working the audio-visual system.  A few years ago, my husband bought a television set for our family room with a huge screen, for better sports and movie viewing.  Gradually components were added on—a surround sound system, the keyboard to stream video from Netflix, the standard DVD player, and, a gift… Continue reading The Techno-Freak in Me

The Median Isn’t The Message

Since I am still recovering from Turkey Day laziness, I thought I would share one of my favorite essays with you instead of writing something myself.  Bear with me here because it’s long, but extremely instructive for cancer patients, their caregivers, their loved ones, and those well meaning friends who want to tell you everything… Continue reading The Median Isn’t The Message

The Dentist Will See You Now, or Why I am Not a Veterinarian

I’m usually pretty good at keeping track of all things medical—when my kids were vaccinated, when I need my mammograms and PAP smears, when the girl dogs come into season and when the horses need to see the dentist.  So when Norman the Lipizzaner arrived home from the boarding stable underweight, and two weeks later… Continue reading The Dentist Will See You Now, or Why I am Not a Veterinarian

Cast A Cold Eye

“By his command these words are cut:           Cast a Cold Eye, on Life, on Death.  Horseman pass by.” “Under Ben Bulben”, by William Butler Yeats, inscribed on his tombstone. Yeats has always been my favorite poet. From the full upper lip depicted in early photographs and paintings of him, to his unrequited love for Maud… Continue reading Cast A Cold Eye