Blogs

Retirement?

When you’ve been in practice for many years,when you have some gray hair,gray being the majority of the hair I have left, and many

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Loss, Grief, Recovery

I have studied loss and grief just like any other physician, including the classic works of Kubler-Ross’ grief stages of death and dying. All

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On Behalf of No Burpers

An open letter to insurance moderators and the medical world, regarding retrograde cricopharyngeus (CP) dysfunction (RCPD), no burpers: Thank you for the opportunity to

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Unprecedented?

I hesitate to add to the cacophony surrounding the corona virus, but these are ‘unprecedented’ times, or so that’s what I’ve heard and read

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Big Cancer Cases

“You’re a bad ass” he said as I walked into his hospital room, making post op rounds from the previous day’s surgery. Yesterday I

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Book Club, or Docs Read

One of the challenges of practicing medicine today is the relative isolation of doctors from other doctors, especially referral sources and recipients of those

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Sinus Balloon Procedure

Sinusitis  101 It is uncommon for sinus infections to spread outside of the sinus into the eye or brain, but certainly the possibility exists

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Glomus Tumor Case

In the OR, working through a speculum with an opening the size of a BIC pen, I surgically raised up the right ear drum

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A surgeon finds his heart

If you are lucky, one day you will fall in love. It happens to most all of us at one time or another. It’s actually a psychosis, this falling in love thing. Endorphins bathe our brains with that top of the world, nothing can hurt us euphoria.

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A Challenging Day

When I finished my residency training in 1985, I had the impression that all the great, interesting, challenging cases could be found only at the tertiary care university setting. How wrong I was, how naive I was.

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Morehead alumni forum

In my life there have been several extraordinary experiences that have led to the creation of the human being that I am. The man that I am. The person that I am. Take note that I have not said the ‘surgeon’ that I am.

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The Uninsured

I have treated and continue to treat many uninsured patients in my practice. And invariably, when thinking about diagnostic and treatment options for their condition, I come to think how on God’s earth am I able to provide the medical care they need without totally running up a huge bill and huge debt for them!!!

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Golf and the Operating Room

It is certainly no mystery that golf and surgeons go hand in hand. Most surgeons play golf, or at least it seems that way by the animated talk and expressions by those golfing surgeons when the topic arises.

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Intraoperative Decisions & the Holy Grail of Nerves

What happens in the OR, or more specifically what happens in my head when an unexpected intraoperative situation dictates a change of direction? It is much better to have considered all the possible scenarios, to have a contingency plan, and to have discussed these plans and possibilities with the patient and family.

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Emergency surgery

I was called out in the middle of my Sunday evening activities for an emergency – bleeding after a tonsillectomy. It is a very scary event to be sitting at home or sleeping about a week after your tonsillectomy, and then suddenly feel a warm liquid in your mouth that you either swallow or let run out, and then look in the mirror or in your hands and discover your own blood.

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Father’s Day, personal and professional

On this most holy of days, we honor our fathers and forefathers. I had the good fortune of attending church and having brunch with two of my three grown children (the oldest is in Europe pursuing her graduate studies). My resident step son honored me with a beautiful book of a collection of golf photos .

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Healthcare Reform

The pressing issue of the day is the shape and form of the upcoming healthcare reform. Unfortunately, none of the current proposals actually reform healthcare. They merely increase the numbers of insured that will be eligible to have their healthcare bills covered by whatever insurance (government sponsored or private plans) these reforms provide.

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Community surgeon

The trenches, where the real tough, gritty work is done, aptly describes the daily life and work of a community surgeon. ENT (ear, nose, and throat) in my case.

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