Even during a pandemic, pain happens. I’ve recently fielded calls from patients suffering with shingles and sciatica, both nasty forms of nerve pain. Luckily, Dr. Heather Finlay-Morreale, Umass Memorial Medical Center pediatrician and neuropathic pain management expert, was a recent guest on my show. Her […]
Sometimes I just need to write about what is really going on in our lives: We adopted a puppy! The puppy thing has been in the works for many moons, since we relocated to a home that actually has a yard with a fence around […]
I’ve seen some Tweets poking fun at people who refer to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, the protests against police brutality, the inexcusable lack of U.S. leadership, and, well, everything as just “everything going on right now”. It’s even got a hashtag. It’s its […]
I very much support the nationwide protests against racism, because racism is very much a public health problem. Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, explains: “That reality is apparent not just in the police brutality that disproportionately claims the lives of […]
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 makes some people really, really sick. And it’s not all about age. Studies show that regardless of age, obesity is a major risk factor, along with obesity-related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. Specialists feel that there are […]
Here in Massachusetts, the numbers are sloooowly improving. Per the MA Department of Public Health COVID-19 dashboard, here is where we are as of Sunday May 17: Here at my hospital, our COVID-19 admissions have come down to a reasonable simmer, with 246 inpatients, 75 […]
It’s a gorgeous spring day in May. Trees are flowering, flowers are flowering, and I can’t go a day without antihistamines. I suffer from springtime pollen allergies and asthma, common things that can cause congestion and a cough. This has been anxiety-provoking for me at […]
So, here I am in the office, which all but closed in mid-March. While we do have a skeleton crew on site seeing non-COVID-19 urgent care (like abrasions and UTI’s and joint pain), most our ongoing outpatient work is via telehealth. I’m going to talk […]
I was “activated” to duty on the inpatient COVID surge teams last week. I was worried, not only because it’s been a decade since I’ve been in charge of an inpatient service, but more so because SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, and COVID19* is a […]
I got the email from my boss on Tuesday: “You are receiving this message because you have been scheduled to staff an inpatient COVID-19 surge team…” What followed was a really long, dense list of critically important logistical/ workflow/ orientation information, replete with links to […]