Category: residency
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Erythromycin: The Red Crow
Macrolides in general are popularly symbolized with crows. You can thank SketchyPharm for that. As a medication class, they work via inhibition the 50s subunit of bacterial ribosomes, symbolized with “halos,” here in accordance with the Major Number System. Occasionally a “red crow” for erythromycin, a white-rainbow crow for “clarithromycin” (as in “clear”), or a…
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Routine
Another day passes with a soft whoosh like a lamppost outside a car window. My dad said this would happen, and with increasing speed as I got older and I guess he was right. Rather than a day spent as a unit enjoyed whole I spend my moments repeating moments just like the last: getting…
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The 3-Minute Moisturizing Miracle: Unlocking the Secret to Hydrated Skin
Around maybe my or fourth year residency training, I started to notice something: Damn, I know a lot about skincare. As in, I talk about it all the time. During any given day, you’ll see me spouting the same information over and over again. “Use a gentle soap, make sure your water isn’t too hot,…
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Strong Force
There’s strong force, and then there’s the force by which cheap stickers adhere to inappropriate surfaces, like the inner edge of the toilet seat in the guest bathroom. Or the granite island and linoleum floor of our rental unit. I’m sitting here with a bottle of Goo Gone and a butter knife slowly peeling away…
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The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done, Part I
We step into the kitchen and I put my discharge paperwork along with paper bags full of new medications, Paxlovid among them, on the island. My belly is 8 months heavy, and I’m exhausted. We (my baby and I) have just been released after an overnight stay at the hospital. It’s late Spring, 2022. I…
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My Contribution
My son rests his head in tthe hollow where my arm meets my chest, as if it were made for him. As I kiss his forehead I feel the head radiating from his skull; he’s too warm. 103.2. My guess was off, only 101.4. No better than yesterday, I’m afraid. Worse, even. What will we…
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The Lucky Ones
40 weeks Seems far too short to shield your body with mine. What I wouldn’t give to take from you every bullet Such that you could have every breath of mine As God and Nature intended it to be We cannot hide forever As much as my heart wants to You will not bloom if…
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To parent, to sleep, to dream
I can do more make my daughter take a nap that I can yell at the rain and stop it from pouring. I could do it some parents do, which is throw their kid in a sparsely furnished dark room, turn off the lights, and close the door. I can’t do that for several reasons,…
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Second shift
Across the screen float up semi-transparent strings in poor focus. Floaters. A consequence of myopic vision and likely tired eyes as I stare blankly at the last clinic note from today. Getting notes done is easier at clinic than at home- the monitors are wide, the keyboards are crisp, and at my right there’s a…
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Of Pumping and Producing
After heating up a fresh bottle of formula, I prop the bottle up for my 6-month hold son to hold on the floor. With a slight adjustment, he’s successful, and I turn back to the task at hand. I’m a little embarrassed that I consider holding his own bottle to be a huge accomplishment, but…
Med-Derm, MD 