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
Another Thanksgiving
Every year when the time changes and the days get shorter and the nights longer, I start to feel it. By the time that the halls are decked with boughs of holly, now shortly before Thanksgiving, the season of airport delays, of frantic last minute shopping, of eating and drinking too much and then doing… Continue reading Another Thanksgiving
Just Trying To Keep The Customer Satisfied
The institution that employs me is very bullish on customer satisfaction. Having come from a fourteen year stint in private practice before I came back into the University fold six years ago, the little things that make a practice run smoothly come naturally to me. Patients are typically seen within a week of the consultation… Continue reading Just Trying To Keep The Customer Satisfied
Happiness is a Warm Puppy
I had promised my friend Rachel two months ago that when it came time to let her current litter of Scottish deerhound puppies go to their new homes, I would come to Arizona for the big send off. I bought my ticket to Tucson cheap but life has been hectic lately, between the pressures of… Continue reading Happiness is a Warm Puppy
For Michael
Writing a novel is like following a recipe for rhinoceros stew that begins: 1) Find a Rhino -Michael S. Palmer I was saddened earlier this week to read, first on Facebook as posted by his son Daniel, that Michael Palmer had passed away after suffering a heart attack and then a stroke, while going through… Continue reading For Michael
Back In The Saddle
An email from a reader early this morning reminded me that I have not given my Crab Diaries an update on the adventures of my eighty-eight year old Dad. The story left off on our trip back from Aspen, Colorado where we held a memorial service for my mother on September 29. The thin mountain… Continue reading Back In The Saddle
The Future is Now
Two days after I returned from Jamaica, my husband surprised me by throwing a dinner party for his business associates and their wives, most of whom I had not met. Knowing that my first few days back at work would be hectic, he decided that he would not burden me with the planning and execution… Continue reading The Future is Now
The Thundershirt
“Thunder and lightning, very very frightening–me” Queen When I woke up this morning, they were already at it, and I walked into the kitchen and immediately slipped in a large pool of saliva that had apparently been dripping from the mouth of big Magic, my 125 pound scaredy cat Scottish deerhound. When I say “they”,… Continue reading The Thundershirt
The Face Of Hope
With special thanks to Dr. Dingle Spence. Thirty three years ago my husband and I went to Jamaica for a belated honeymoon. We got married on the last weekend of my internship year, and immediately flew back to Boston for me to start my second year of internal medicine training. Seven months later in the… Continue reading The Face Of Hope
It’s Always Something
When you are owned by a Scottish deerhound, or two or three, you get the pleasure of their company on your couch, the soulful gaze of their soft brown eyes as they gently interfere with your reading and typing, and occasionally the crunching sound of the prime rib that was marinating on the countertop before… Continue reading It’s Always Something