Doctor Psychobabble

• Treating Stress, Speech Disorders With Music : NPR
• Nurses Threaten Strike at Three New York Hospitals – NYTimes.com
• As Doctors Use More Devices, Potential for Distraction Grows – NYTimes.com
• Doctor and Patient: When the Doctor Gets Sued – NYTimes.com
• Doctor and Patient: A Web Campaign to Prevent Cancer – NYTimes.com
• N.Y.C. Sidewalks Getting More Crowded – NYTimes.com
• Doctor and Patient: A Medical School More Like Hogwarts – NYTimes.com
• Mad as Hell – NYTimes.com
• Coping With Addiction and a Mood Disorder – NYTimes.com
• Ex-Convict Uses Battle With Addiction and Mental Illness to Help Others – NYTimes.com
• A World Without Faces – NYTimes.com
• Robert Ader, Who Linked Stress and Illness, Dies at 79 – NYTimes.com

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD to read about taking your work home with you.

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”

– Benjamin Franklin

I am home, post-call from the hospital. Christmas is over. I missed my family, but at least got to hang out with some good friends on Christmas Eve. However, on that same day I went for what was going to be a yummy 12-mile run. But less than half way into it, I had a spill and badly inverted my foot. I thought it might be broken so today I ordered an x-ray for myself. When I went to radiology to have the x-ray performed, the technician said, “where is the patient, doc?” And I smiled and said, “I am the patient!” Anyway, after encouraging the radiologist to read my x-ray in a hurry, he discovered that I actually had an old, healing fracture, but no new fracture related to my injury. Likely just a bad sprain. But it has certainly put a rain on my parade. And I will have to suck it up, be a good girl, and not run for a bit while it heals.

I was reminded today how good work is for the soul. I had gotten a touch of the blues from not working and missing my family. And then I had an awesomely busy day today. It again reminded me how much I love to work. And I had some fascinating cases, including a patient with severe PTSD with psychosis.

It is good to be needed and to work.

I just treated myself by ordering sushi delivery (hey, I have a sprained ankle, I deserve it!)

Time to eat and be grateful for my job.

Photo: “Couch Surfin” Taken on my hobble to the hospital this morning. Part of My “Trash Talkin” Photo Series

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”

- Andy Rooney

I will not be spending this Christmas with my family due to work obligations. Of course, I’m not happy about this. Christmas time has always been a time filled with food, family and good times for me.

I will have Christmas Eve off, and I’m hoping to get together with some of my friends.

It’s kind of difficult not to be a bit depressed this time of the year when alone. But I’m getting by.

Perhaps I will go to the 99 cents store and pick up some festive items to decorate my apartment with. I think that will make me feel better.

Anyway, merry Christmas and happy holidays and all that jazz! Let us all be thankful for all that is good and wonderful in our lives!

I continue to enjoy my rotation in addiction psychiatry. I’m busy tonight preparing for a journal club presentation tomorrow and making food for our non-denominational holiday party.

So, in lieu of exciting stories, I will leave you with some great quotes from my patients. There have been so many more awesome ones, but I usually forget to write them down. Enjoy!

“So I gave up and sang the addict’s anthem – F*** it!”

“My drug addiction was at it’s worst when I decided that I wanted to be like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.”

“Why am I here? Well doc, I was knock knock knockin on heaven’s door.”

“How could anything be wrong? I was living the crack addict’s dream!”

Photo: My mom’s doggy Sebastian. “All the other doggies called him names!”

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD to read my thoughts on the answer to this question.

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

“Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Acting funny and I don’t know why
Excuse me while I kiss the sky”

- Lyrics to “Purple Haze,” by Jimi Hendrix

It’s 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I just got home from being on call all night at the hospital. I didn’t get much sleep. So many thoughts flying around in my skull right now.

Mostly, I’m just tired. Also, the combination of my working at a hospital, which is a bit far from my “home base” and a bunch of night calls the past 2 months and a bunch of other things have me feeling a bit “off.”

I am going to hit the sack now and then see if I can actually make something of this day. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks to Jono for the inspiration for the above quote.

Photo: “Same Insane”

“Everybody’s talking at me
I don’t hear a word they’re saying
Only the echoes of my mind

People stopping staring
I can’t see their faces
Only the shadows of their eyes

I’m going where the sun keeps shining
Thru’ the pouring rain
Going where the weather suits my clothes
Backing off of the North East wind
Sailing on summer breeze
And skipping over the ocean like a stone”

- Lyrics to “Everybody’s Talkin” by Harry Nilsson

Hello blog, I have missed you. I’ve been a busy bee lately.

I continue to enjoy my addiction psychiatry rotation. I continue to abhor the commute. I drive because it saves me tons of time, but I absolutely hate driving. I miss my walks. I miss my trash photography. I dread the stress involved with driving. I can’t help but think about how horrible for mental health driving is.

I went for a run around the park today after work. It uplifted me. I continue to run in shorts despite the frigid weather. Call me crazy, everyone else does. For some reason, people see me in my shorts and are compelled to “talk at me.” “Aren’t you cold?” they ask. Apparently they don’t realize that I’m not. The feeling of the cold air against my blood-infused legs inspires me and lifts me higher. It challenges me to go faster, run harder.

Lately, I have found myself missing “pure” psychiatric patients. Most of my patients don’t have an “Axis I” diagnosis, other than their substance abuse. And many of them have antisocial personality disorder. A challenging population to work with, indeed. More to come on that topic, soon. Promise.

For now, it’s leftover eating and study time!

Photo: “Door out of order.” Taken last week as I entered my subway station.

Please check out my latest post on “The Ink Blot” at Medscape/WebMD to read some thoughts on hating patients.

Click Here to View the Original Post on Medscape

“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.”

- Carl Jung

For the month of December, I am rotating at a VA hospital and learning addiction psychiatry. So far, it is incredibly awesome and I promise to share some great insights soon.

The only problem is that it’s much easier/faster to drive to the hospital instead of walking or subwaying. Or at least I thought. And then today I hit some traffic on the way home and had a realization that I will never be happy inside of a car. I need to walk. I need to breathe the air. And I need to take photos. So, tomorrow I will try out a new route that may involve 6+ miles of walking each day. But at least I’ll have my sanity. Or so I think.

Photo: Me inside my wardrobe during my move. Spooky!