Tag: DPD
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Cloaked in white
Stacey Maslow Framingham, Massachusetts, United States Photo courtesy of the author Darkness envelops me. A sliver of light peeks beneath the door from the world beyond the hospital room. Through the window hilled silhouettes stand silent before a veiled black backdrop. My mind wanders to the image of morning in the town just waking…
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My very own back pain
Andrew Bamji Rye, East Sussex, UK Illustration by Claude Serre. As a rheumatologist, now retired, I spent a good portion of my working life dealing with patients who had back pain. I reckoned over the course of thirty-three years in the specialty that I had back pain largely nailed. I developed an algorithm which…
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Learning about children
Canon Brodar Miami, Florida, United States The Infant Hercules, ca. 1785–89. Sir Joshua Reynolds, British. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Surdna Fund. I began my first clinical rotation excited but fearful. Medical students are taught about pediatric pathology and developmental milestones, but nothing about working with children and their families. I had heard…
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Great expectations
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece Summer Calm—image by the author “Doctor, I want you to treat her as a forty-year old!” What is the appropriate answer to a demand like that from a daughter about the treatment of her eighty-eight-year-old mother? Any suggestion that her mother might not do well even with the best treatment…
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A dog like that
Rebecca Osborn New Haven, Connecticut, United States An Old Man with a Dog. Giacomo Ceruti. 1740s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “You ever seen a dog like that?” I smile and shake my head. Tony sips his black coffee, his eyes lingering on the open doorway. “What a dog. What a beautiful dog. Most…
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Applause: Reflections on The Plague and being a doctor in a pandemic
Roger Ruiz Moral Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. Madrid, Spain Quote from the English version of The Plague by Albert Camus in the Library Walk (New York City). Accessed via Wikimedia. Sculpture by Gregg LeFevre. Photo by Heike Huslage-Koch/Lesekreis. “I imagine then what the plague must be for you. Yes, – said Rieux – an endless defeat.”1 The COVID-19 lockdown is today in…
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The big question
Monica Maalouf Chicago, Illinois, USA Open Heart, painting by Monica Maalouf “Doctor, why are we here?” I had just finished answering her questions about her insulin dosing and was crouched down, examining her foot rash, when I looked up at Mrs. Syed, feebly trying to mask my annoyance. “Well, these are just the rooms…
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Block
Tuhina Raman Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The Journey Inwards by Dr. Nikhil Meena The lateral chest is the easel for my handiwork. I paint an orange sheen that glints off my patient’s chest as I prep and drape in standard sterile fashion. Round and round, from the center to the periphery. Once, twice—the third…