by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
We all go through difficult times; I certainly have. When patients express discouragement about the track of their lives, I tell them about my friend John. John was a wonderful surgeon who operated on two of my kids. He was a gentleman and a gentle man, and he...
by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
As my patient population aged, I heard more and more complaints about life’s daily aches and pains, and how annoying they were. I would commiserate: I know. I get them, too. I was complaining to my wife about them, and she said to me, “We both have friends who died...
by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
This is a potentially fraught situation, because the patient has made up his mind that he needs something, like an expensive test or an antibiotic for a viral URI, and won’t be satisfied until he gets it. You explain your medical thinking, and he doesn’t accept what...
by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
You might – just might – have patients who don’t take your advice and return with same problem again and again. For such patients, like inveterate smokers with recurrent upper respiratory infections or refluxers who just have to have that bowl of ice cream...
by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
One of the most distressing things for a family is when a patient, usually elderly, suddenly gets worse and seems to be heading for a cliff. When I was a medical student at Columbia, we admitted a ninety-seven-year-old history professor with a broken hip. At his age,...
by Dr. Bob Baker, MD | Mar 21, 2018 | Storybank
Patients recovering from surgery or an illness sometimes perceive they’re having setbacks or days when they don’t seem to be improving. Once I’ve determined that no untoward medical event has occurred, I explain progress this way: The course of recovery from anything...
