I have been feeling as if, so far, my COVID-19 experience has been a fortunate one. I am working hard, but I am with a great team and, so far, we have not had any of our colleagues become ill with the virus. So far, my family has been well. Today I spoke with a …
Here is a second poem from the “archives” sent to me by my former English prof. What was interesting reading it was that, at the time, it was written, with the gender of the doctor being female, the poem shook the reader awake to the possibility of a female surgeon. There were not many female …
Continuing with yesterday’s email from an English prof, I have found a few poems related to medicine that I vividly remember writing. I remember writing this when I realized that that I could never be a paediatrician. When I first thought of becoming a doctor, I thought of being a paediatrician because I did like …
Of all the changes from a Youth Inpatient Unit to an Adult Unit, the one change that is most distressing to me is patients’ addictions to nicotine. Many patients who are transferred to this new unit from other community hospitals are most concerned about whether they will be able to smoke. As a Youth Psychiatrist, …
It’s May in Ottawa. There is light in the sky at 9 pm on a clear day and by 5:30 in the morning. I love all the light at this time of year…but it snowed on and off over the weekend and that was just more than I could abide. Snow in May is so …
Today many of the people I work with at the hospital volunteered to go and work at one of the long term care facilities with the most COVID-19 cases. They were resolute about their decisions, determined: “I have a moral and ethical obligation to do this.” “People put their lives on the line for my …
I had an exhausting day at work. As each hour passed, I had more and more patients to see. There were so many patients waiting, with problems so complex, that at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I asked my assistant to cancel a clinic so that I could finish while I still had enough space …
“We are all in this together.” The Prime Minister says this every day as he ends his briefing. Political leaders everywhere are saying this. “We are all in this together.” But are we together? Different people have very different experiences of the pandemic, in fact. Some people can isolate at home, never having had any …
It’s a beautiful April Day. It’s sunny and there’s a soft, warm wind blowing from the West, brushing the treetops and ruffling the last leaves holding on from the fall. I am thinking of marijuana. Three years ago, in 2017, marijuana was an illegal substance in Canada and now it’s an “essential service”. The marijuana …
It is 42 years since I finished medical school. I could retire anytime, but I like my work. I love the patients I meet and the people I work with and, if work were not more fun than knitting or my hobbies, I’d give it up. However, I am fed up with people suggesting to …
