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How much is my face worth?

The Perks of Being Married to a Facial Plastic Surgeon: What is the True Cost of My Face? Let’s see. Yes, I enjoy the unique benefits of being married to a facial plastic surgeon. If our spouses are in an industry that benefits us, I think we all agree that it is important to use all of the perks that come with the relationships.  For me, that means access to aesthetic enhancements and…

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It's a Losing Game.

You might think that we MDs could teach a class on dealing with health insurers. We are always trying to justify why our patients should get a certain test or medicine through prior authorizations, pre certifications, appeals, elevated appeals, peer to peer calls (that are rarely with an actual peer). But, no, it makes no more sense to us than it does to you. Sometimes it feels good to share the…

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Diet and Exercise: The Best Medicine

You Are What You Eat: In the realm of health, few factors play as crucial a role as diet and exercise. In this blog, we delve into the optimal combination of these key players to prevent heart disease—a leading health concern globally. The Mediterranean Diet Triumphs: Numerous studies champion the Mediterranean diet as a formidable ally in the fight against heart disease. This diet, renowned for…

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I Made a Zero on my Test! CT of the Heart

How Do You Know If You Have Heart Disease: For the past two decades, the use of CT scans for assessing heart health has become a routine practice. Particularly, the CT calcium score has emerged as a valuable screening tool to detect hard plaque, providing a numerical score that gives a yes or no answer to whether or not you have plaque in the arteries. This test can assess risk of a heart attack…

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Decoding Heart Disease

The terms can be confusing: When it comes to heart health, knowledge is your greatest ally. This blog unravels some of the complexities surrounding heart disease, from understanding individual risk factors to demystifying terms and explaining different conditions like heart disease, heart failure, and cardiac arrest. Determining Your Risk: While everyone is at risk of heart disease, the key lies…

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Doctor's make the best patients. Or, maybe not.

I had surgery last week to remove my left ovary.  I’m 53, so it isn’t doing all that much for me anyway.  It was what we call an “incidental finding.”  This simply means that we were looking for something else, but could not ignore this other issue that is staring back at you and is not supposed to be there.  The good news is that all of my cancer markers are negative, so there is a less than 2%…

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He thanked me for listening

He thanked me for listening

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com He said “thank you for listening to me” before he left for the Emergency Room.  I’m still mulling over his appreciation.  He did not want to come to the Urgent Care, but he named a few complaints to his nurse daughter and she asked him to please be seen.  His symptoms were vague.  He had fatigue and noticed his blood pressure and pulse were higher than…

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Pandemic Brain

I stopped writing during Covid. Even my journals are empty. I had a strong desire as a physician to “do something” so I worked Urgent Care. There has been some discussion about the 1918 flu pandemic not showing up in much literature of the time, with the exception of Pale Rider, by Laura Spinney. I wonder if most of us living through a pandemic simply need to take mental breaks. I know I did. I…