Category: General Observations

Follow Up

My new resident started working today.  He is the first radiation oncology resident to come to work in our facility, since the residency director felt that being out in the community was more like “real life”—I don’t have the luxury of treating only one or two types of cancer—out here in the suburbs I have… Continue reading Follow Up

The Leaky Roof

In this dry Southwestern part of the United States, there are only two seasons:  fire season and rainy season.  Fire season will end in another month, hopefully without further casualties or homes lost. The rainy season will start, such as it is.  Here we average 9 inches of rain a year, and we are perpetually… Continue reading The Leaky Roof

My Father’s Hands

I never gave my hands much thought until a few years ago.  They were never pretty, but they were functional serviceable hands that did what they were asked—I could examine a patient, type fast and accurately enough, and everyone always told me that my handwriting was outstanding.  That has always been a point of pride… Continue reading My Father’s Hands

Atonement

At one of the boarding and training stables where I took riding lessons, there was a custom passed down through generations of instructors and eager children.  If a horse managed to unseat a young rider, the slightly bruised and dirty little victim was allowed to pull a few strands of said horse’s tail.  The instructor… Continue reading Atonement

Cancer is a Word, Not a Sentence

I am the one who doesn’t like to fast forward during the commercials.  While others get up from the couch for a bathroom break, to grab a beer, take a phone call, or interrupt our programming to discuss the new season of whichever show we happen to be watching, I sit riveted to the screen.… Continue reading Cancer is a Word, Not a Sentence

I’ll Take the Sexy Name

When it comes to radiation therapy products, the high tech companies really outdo themselves with names.  It seems to me that the higher the price tag on the item, the more thought goes into the label.  Varian, the largest manufacturer of linear accelerators, trumped its competition with the moniker on its latest linac, the “TrueBeam”. … Continue reading I’ll Take the Sexy Name

NURSE!!

For Donna,  Linda and Kelly When I was an Internal Medicine intern, my very first rotation was in the Coronary Care Unit, aka “the CCU.”  Nothing could be more frightening to both the intern and the patient than an acute myocardial infarction the first week in July.  It is a well-known fact that hospital mortality… Continue reading NURSE!!

Who Wants to be First?

After much preparation, we opened our new radiation therapy department in September 2008.  Many many elements and “players” had to come together to produce a new state of the art community cancer center.  No detail was overlooked– the existing space had to be renovated  to create a more “zen-like” work flow and feel; the front… Continue reading Who Wants to be First?

Gifts of the Magi

In my mind’s eye, I see them coming—a long processional stretching back years, each with a different cloak of disease, each with a small receptacle.  They come bearing gifts  for me, their doctor—a small box,  a carefully folded tissue, a child’s sippy cup (the top tightly closed), and occasionally, yes, toilet paper. What are these… Continue reading Gifts of the Magi