Reflections on Medicine & Life
5 min read…Some years ago, I saw an advertisement for “NoCry” cut-resistant gloves. The picture in the ad showed two hands wearing the gloves and a large kitchen knife being pulled across one palm (see bottom of page). At that
5 min read…If you were my patient and you were grieving, I would comfort you. Most of the time, I would know the words to say and the ones to skip. I would help you think about loss, grief, and
8 min read…Running Into Worry While standing in the ordering line of a locally famous ice cream shop, I ran into an acquaintance. She pulls me aside and whispers, “I have bad news.” Her face has lost all color. My
8 min read…A Psychologist Kills Himself It was September 9, 2019, the second day of National Suicide Prevention Week in National Suicide Prevention Month. A man jumped off a 17-story building in Philadelphia. Police ruled his death a suicide. At
3 min read… Every day we hear of a friend, or a friend of a friend, or some celebrity getting cancer. We are positive that we didn’t hear about so many people getting cancer 25 years ago when we were
9 min read…I planned my first funeral a few months ago. I am talking about my wife Uzma’s funeral. She died on January 30, 2019. Uzma had cancer. When her doctors couldn’t stop cancer from having Uzma, they referred her
5 min read…My wife Uzma’s first treatment for Stage 4 breast cancer was an oral drug — a medication to take by mouth every day at home. It cost over $10,000 a month. Uzma’s cancer was slow-growing but relentless. It
3 min read…Yesterday, a phone call from a surgeon reminded me how much I will miss Uzma’s gut feeling about people. And it taught me how little it can sometimes take to break stereotypes. Before I recount the tale, I
6 min read…My wife Uzma died peacefully at home. She hadn’t taken any painkillers for three days. Our kids, my parents, and I were next to her. In the weeks leading up to her death, she was visited by many
2 min read…About one and a half years before she died, my wife Uzma, undergoing treatment for stage 4 breast cancer , started looking for an appointment with a palliative care physician close to home. She called a few different