She worked for the city, and was grateful to have a job. She hadn’t worked for a while, and life was hard. You can’t pay bills when you have no money. Her job: booting cars. Tracking down the cars who hadn’t paid parking tickets or speeding tickets to the city. Adding a yellow boot lock…
She was born in the neighborhood, and grew up in the neighborhood. She raised her children in the neighborhood. Her family and friends are in the neighborhood. She still gets medical care in the neighborhood. But she no longer lives in the neighborhood. Not after she was shoved to the ground and raped at gunpoint in the alleyway…
I love how deep breathing calms the soul. Physical actions and mental/emotional well-being are so closely linked. I am grateful that YogaCare brings the healing benefits of yoga to my patients at Chicago Family Health Center. And now it is reaching more people through television! On Monday, YogaCare spread its impact with a short segment…
I saw a patient last week who asked me for Cialis. “I need 20 mg pills, doctor,” he said. “Not 5 mg! Otherwise I don’t get it for free.” He showed me the paper he had with information about the free drugs provided by the company. 30 free 5 mg pills. Or 3 free 20…
If you haven’t followed the saga of my patient who was shot in the arm, here’s the story, in brief: Armed robbery. Nothing to rob. Pissed off robber. Pulled trigger. Bullet in arm. Emergency room (X-rays, splint, antibiotics, instructions to followup with primary care doctor) NO CARE FOR THREE WEEKS. No dressing change nothing. Wound debrided…
The following excerpts on racism, riots and social progress are from Martin Luther King Jr’s “The Other America” speech at Stanford in 1967. He spoke then on social tensions stemming from great inequalities, but could be speaking today. How far have we come in the last fifty years? How far will we go in the…
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day. In honor of his lifelong commitment to racial justice, I read through his “Other America” speech. He gave this in 1967, at Stanford University, as he shifted his focus from Negro rights to his Poor People’s Campaign demanding better pay and affordable housing. We can call it his “Other Speech”, night…
Have I mentioned how frustrated I get by my clinic’s EMR? Totally slow, inefficient, I apologize on a regular basis to patients, “I’m sorry, my mind can only work on one thing at a time, I need to put this order in then I’ll talk to you again.” I find myself banging the keyboard when the…
This week, I stayed after clinic to catch up on charting. After actually finishing writing the patient notes from the week, the next part of charting was clicking “approve” on a long (long!) list of neglected patient notes that needed to be finalized. Literally, I just needed to click “approve”, over and over. But it wasn’t click…
I don’t know if the term “socio-medical” even exists. But it felt like every single pathology I dealt with today was a social problem. Ulcer, exercerbated by no medications (damn pre-authorization!), and no food. In an unstable housing situation, with limited transportation. And serious medical issues taken lightly by a local hospital. My diagnoses: Unstable…
Prevention Not Prescription 