“What brings you in today?” I asked my new patient, a healthy appearing clean cut thirty five year old married man with kids. “Check me out, doc.” (STD check? chronic disease screen?) “My brother was just diagnosed with diabetes, I want to make sure I’m okay.” (okay, easy—sugar and cholesterol check) No prior medical problems for him.…
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…
The patient with the gun shot wound to the arm came back to clinic, and is healing nicely. Home nursing is working out a little less nicely. Challenges in coordinating care–two visits in two weeks. Still, between my care and their care, and the natural healing of the human body, the gun shot wound is…
As a family physician on Chicago’s South Side, every day brings painful and beautiful stories, many variations on a theme–gun violence, senseless loss, deep heartbreak for loved ones, deep love for family, faith in God. Patients share how they cope with life constraints and limited opportunities with warmth, humor, anger, sadness and love. I am going to…
Her son was a war hero, survived his tours of duty unscathed. An upstanding boy, an upstanding serviceman. At age 33, father to two sons, he was killed on his doorstep in Chicago. “That 17 year old punk,” his mother says, “killed him for his wallet.” “My son didn’t know not to fight.” The killer was found. The killer…
This past year has been an exciting adventure in establishing YogaCare, a non-profit with a mission to spread the healing benefits of yoga to all communities. As we enter the holiday season, I would like to share YogaCare’s newsletter and holiday wish list with you. Dear YogaCare Friends, In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we would…
The word is out–according to economists from Standard & Poor, the stalled economic recovery in America after the Great Recession could be due to our staggering income inequality. The rich get richer, and they already have everything they need, so they do not buy any additional goods and services, but instead put their money into…
It’s time to celebrate all things yoga, and YogaCare! Three years ago, yoga instructor Greg Van Hyfte was a student in the Social Services Administration school at the University of Chicago, and a Schweitzer Fellow. His project was to bring weekly yoga classes to Chicago Family Health Center, where I work as a family physician.…
Two years ago, at a conference for the American Association of Medical Colleges, there was a group from New Mexico that was handing out little buttons that said “Innovate” (only the “ate” was a sign for infinity–eight, with a twist). As part of their Innov8 campaign, they asked conference attendees to videotape or write the…
Prevention Not Prescription 