2. The Breast Cancer Experience: Frequently Asked Questions
How was it discovered? Screening mammogram and ultrasound. Did you feel a lump? No. Did you do self-breast exams regularly? Yes. Which side? Left breast. Right breast was normal, no cancer there. What stage was it? Based on imaging – 1A. Based on final pathology – 2A. The mass was actually bigger than what was […]
1. Plot Twist!
Blog readers may have noticed I haven’t been posting regularly in 2022. There’s a very good reason for that. I’ve been writing stuff – but they’re not here on the blog, because of the personal and sensitive nature of the topic. One year later I’m ready to put it out there, so here goes. In […]
Of X-rays and Female Orthopods
Nerdy medical anthropology commentary alert: gender, politics, economics, culture and health. I think this would be a good instructional article for an introductory course. Bookmarking here. Orthopedic surgeons use lead aprons during surgery, when X-rays (radiation from fluoroscopy machines) are needed. The lead aprons are “one size fits all”, which really means “large” and “one […]
Curtains Up: Introduction to Performing Arts Medicine
This is a belated post about the recent webinar from the Performing Arts Medicine Association Young Professionals Committee, in which Dr. Mark Seton and I presented the basics of Performing Arts Medicine. From the PAMA. I was going to blog about it sooner, but life got in the way! From the PAMA website:Let’s start at […]
Mexican Staples with Filipino Heritage
Today I read an article by medical anthropologist Dr. Gideon Lasco, writing for Sapiens, an online magazine of sorts for all things anthropology. He explains how tequila and mezcal, long associated with Mexico, owe their existence to Filipino distilling techniques. In the same vein, the Filipino fermented coconut drink tubá also made its way to […]
A Holistic Approach to Dancer Wellness
That’s a wrap! Thank you World Dance Alliance Singapore for having us speak about the holistic approach to Dancer Wellness today, January 23, 2022 (Asia). Optimizing dancer health needs to address the physical, emotional and mental aspects of health – while you can focus on just one aspect, we must recognize that all of these […]
Communication and its Importance in Rehabilitation, Part 2
In the last blog post, we tackled communication’s importance in a patient’s active participation in rehabilitation and adjusting to their “new normal” after a life-changing event. The rehabilitation team’s patient-centered care involves communicating information in a timely manner, promoting a supportive environment and building good relationships with the patient and family and delivering both bad […]
Communication and its Importance in Rehabilitation, Part 1
A recent blog post tackled the importance of communication in healthcare, and how good communication can lead to better patient outcomes, safety and population health. I also wrote about how I enjoyed a course on healthcare communication in my last semester of school. One of the required assessments for the course was a final research […]
Communication in Healthcare
I’ve been interested in language and linguistics since I was a teenager, probably stemming from a trip to Europe when I was fourteen and seeing how words in different languages were similar to and different from each other. I’ve also purchased and read too many books on the history and evolution of the English language. […]
I’ve graduated… now what? Reflections on the two-year (expensive) sabbatical from clinical medicine.
I have been meaning to write this piece for a while but life got in the way. We’ll start with the celebration from December 20, 2021: Somehow the story of my life centers around studying things that are not easily explained, like physiatry and performing arts medicine (in contrast, everyone pretty much knows what a […]
