Wednesday, June 27, 2007

10:46 PM


I can't believe I didn't see this when it first came out.

When Young Doctors Strut Too Much of Their Stuff - New York Times

When I was a new faculty physician, I worked with a resident doctor who was smart and energetic and took excellent care of her patients.

There was just one problem. As she delivered her thoughtful patient presentations to me and the other attending doctors, it was hard not to notice her low-cut dress.

“You two have to say something to her,” one of my male colleagues said to me and another female doctor one afternoon. But while none of us would have hesitated to intervene had she prescribed the wrong drug for a patient, we felt weird saying something to her about her clothes. So we didn’t.

Nearly a decade later, my impression is that more young physicians and students are dressing like that resident. Every day, it seems, I see a bit of midriff here, a plunging neckline there. Open-toed sandals, displaying brightly manicured toes, seem ubiquitous.


Midriffs, plunging necklines... so why is this a problem? This just proves what a great faculty member I am: I would never hesitate to say something about a low-cut dress. In fact, I should email this article to Cuddy.

And then I should email the author of this article and see if I can get that resident's CV.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

4:32 PM


Your author isn't dead...just buried. The demands of real life continue to suck up House-time. It's been weeks since I've even seen the show.

I haven't given up hope of resuming the blog, or of at least finishing the backstory arc. But it will be a while longer.

Friday, January 12, 2007

5:32 PM


Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.

Some people are like a slinky - not really good for much, but you can’t help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.

Monday, December 25, 2006

11:18 PM


This can't be happening.

This can't be happening.


What's going to happen to me?

Am I going to lose my job?


Am I going to lose my license?


Am I going to go to jail?


It's not fair. I didn't do anything --nothing they didn't make me do. If they'd just left me alone, everything would have been fine. Everything would have been like it was.

Of course, "like it was" is short for "when my life sucked, but manageably."

And now... what am I going to do? They want to take away my license and send me to jail. How did it come to this?

I've been fired before. But they always come back, always, because I have what they need. I can do what they can't. It's only one thing, but it's a big thing, it's an important thing.

But they're not going to care about that any more. And I have nothing left to offer.

I'm almost fifty years old. I'm crippled, I'm alone, I spent Christmas morning with puke in my hair. Despair is clutching at me, pulling me down. There are six messages on my answering machine, three from Wilson and three from my mother. I played them but I didn't really listen to them. I didn't.

I couldn't.

I vaguely remember Wilson being here... sometime. All I really remember is the sight of his eyes hard with anger as something broke within him.

God, what was I thinking? It made sense at the time -- I was frantic with pain and nausea, I just wanted it to go away. I wanted it all to go away -- pain, nausea, Cuddy, Tritter, Chase, everything. And I was going to keep on taking that oxycodone until it all went away. Probably not the best prescription I've ever written.

Of course, it didn't do much good for Wilson's patient either; he's still dead. Still.

If I lose my license I might as well be dead.

Is that the only part of me that's still alive?

Thursday, December 21, 2006

7:11 PM


Wisconsin Man Runs Over, Eats Seven-Legged Transgendered Deer:
FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Rick Lisko hunts deer with a bow, but got his most unusual one driving his truck down his mile-long driveway.

The young buck had nub antlers — and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs.

...John Hoffman of Eden Meat Market skinned the deer for Lisko, who wasn't going to waste the venison from the animal.

"And by the way, I did eat it," Lisko said. "It was tasty."