Category: TMSC

  • Leave It There

    Leave It There

    [I originally wrote this as a medical student working in the ICU. It’s one of my most haunting memories and comes to mind every time I work in the intensive care unit.] “I thought I could beat the ICU, you know?” My resident looked into the distance abstractly as he spoke, talking to himself more…

  • Hands and Feet

    Hands and Feet

    [This was originally written years ago for a Christian campus publication, Revisions. It is one of my favorite reflections and will appear on the ESN blog tomorrow.] The patient came in for a refill of pain medications even though it was his first visit to the family medicine practice. The front desk staff had a letter…

  • Roasting Pan

    In the middle of Target is not the sort of place I would expect to receive bad news. The extra twenty dollars I saved by finding my coveted piece of cookware there instead of at Macy’s thirty minutes ago seemed somewhat trite by comparison, and I did what I could to smile and talk about…

  • Rituals of Annotation

    I am not exactly sure of what prompted me to do it, but I began keeping a tally of all the pronouncements I have done.  I never really knew this before, but pronouncements are done in a remarkably simple and impersonal way.  Most patients who die in the hospital do not go with a bang…

  • In Memoriam

    There are many reasons why I love medicine.  One of them is the ability to dig into the real “stuff” of human existence: life, death, suffering, love, pain, loss, redemption.  Another is the speed by which I can get down and dirty.  In less than fifteen minutes, I can go from being a complete stranger to…

  • Healing By Intention

    To heal by tertiary intention is to leave the wound open on purpose; you see it most often in the gritty sort of traumas that leave large chunks of dirt and debris behind, embedded in the still-injured tissue.  People often wonder why this is done, as it is natural within our impulsive nature to cover…