November 11th, 2011 by BruceCampbellMD in True Stories
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Traveling makes one modest – you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
-Gustave Flaubert
We have come to Kenya, expecting to work outside of our “comfort zones.”
Our patient has arrived from miles away, riding on the back of her husband’s bicycle. She has an enlarging, bleeding mass growing off of the side of her neck. There are no pathologists available, so we are uncertain what kind of tumor it is, although it appears to be a cancer. She has been wearing a scarf to hide the mass for the past year; her head covering is speckled with blood.
We are anxious. Unexpected things can happen in an operating room this far from home. We expect Read more »
June 8th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Health Tips
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When cyclists find out that I am a heart doctor, they most frequently ask about cholesterol numbers.
“…My cholesterol is this…What do you think?”
“…My doctor wants me to take a statin…But I read that these drugs might lower my functional threshold power 2.014 watts/40km.”
All this focus on numbers saddens me. Remember, I am a forest guy, not a tree guy. What’s more, as a doctor that revels in the adrenaline rush of ablating rogue circuits with technology that would impress even a twenty-something, I find questions about biochemistry dreary–like eating quinoa.
I wish folks would ask me about how to terminate AF with a catheter, or how an (evidenced-based) ICD saved a mom’s life, or perhaps even this: “Do you do heart surgery?”
But more often than not people want to know about cholesterol.
Okay. It just so happens that this week brought some very interesting news concerning the treatment of abnormal cholesterol lab values. News that big-picture docs have to like. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
