Browse Items (14 total)

Ugh. I am ashamed to say that is the first word that comes to my mind when I see Jake’s name on my schedule for the day. He is 10 and he has been my patient since he was born. He has an 8-year-old sister Annie and a 5-year-old brother Jimmy. They…

When I first met Charlotte, she was a 15-year-old African American boy named John. I was a white physician working at a community health center in one of the poorest zip codes in Cleveland. John and her mother came in for a well-child exam to get…

I first met Carmendita as she was graduating from high school and needed her physical to go to college. Carmen, a bright, African American female, was so excited to be going to Muskingum University. The first person in her family to go to college,…

Tan olive skin, wide smile, black hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, short and thin, mid 40s… a very typical person I used to see while I was in medical school. I see such patients less often now in private practice.

The patient was a 33-year-old, highly educated, white female. She was pregnant with monochorionic-diamniotic identical twins, or twins that shared the same placenta but were in separate amniotic sacs. She had been cleared from her reproductive…

Several years ago, when I had a painful cyst on my ovary, my family doctor referred me to an OB/GYN. He is not the physician I would have chosen. I prefer female doctors, but I was anxious to get care quickly, and the physician seemed knowledgeable…

Dr. S: Diffuse pain, possible drug-seeking behavior. Ms. K: Doc, I hurt everywhere. I’ve had all kinds of tests and no one can figure out what’s wrong with me. I went to the ER again last week because my chest was hurting and I was afraid it was my…

The translator and I arrived at a modest home in a neighborhood just outside of downtown. We were halfway through the interview process – at perhaps number 20 or 21 of the 45 we had planned to conduct. The neighborhood and home were much like the…

My family and friends (and even my doctor!) think I’m a strong person, but I don’t see it that way. I just do what I need to do to get through each day. Taking care of my family, friends, and sometimes even complete strangers is actually what keeps…

My next patient to be seen during office hours is the typical one whose name is instantly recognizable and causes a shiver much like what a sour candy ball does to your mouth. The interaction is pleasurable enough, but the end result is always…

Milagros is a 50-year-old Puerto Rican woman whose family I met while over the course of 3 months volunteering at a family medicine clinic in South Bronx. She was accompanied by her two teenage daughters, Amparo, 18, and Beatriz, 13, and her grandson…

“It’s about time you got in here.” I was just a few minutes late getting started for Kathleen’s appointment, so it seemed apparent she was in a hurry. Kathleen sat in a chair next to our examination table. She was restless and her excess body weight…

Urban corner stores in Northeast Ohio have a reputation for contributing to neighborhood demise. Sales of liquor, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and other high-calorie low-nutrition foods along with high check-cashing fees have given corner stores…

This is a story of three patients seen by a newly licensed physician shortly after completing residency training. The physician was born, raised, and educated in the northeastern United States before moving to Texas where he was unprepared to handle…
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