Author: Perle Feldman
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My Happy Place
Hello, my name is Perle Feldman, and I am a birth junkie. A few weeks ago, I was working on a meditation technique. First, the therapist asked me to visualize a happy moment, a time when I felt calm, in control and comfortable. I then had an image of my last delivery. Many people find…
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July: Joy and Dread
Every July, as a family medicine teacher, I greet the year with a combination of excitement, anticipation and dread. Who will they be, these young doctors who are my charges and companions for the next two years? I haven’t met this year’s cohort yet, and none of them are students that I remember teaching during…
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The Soap Opera Need
Medicine fulfils three basic needs in the physician: the puzzle need, the fix-it need and the soap opera need. The puzzle need is our desire to figure things out, unravel the mystery of differential diagnosis, and apply our knowledge of physiology and “illness scripts” to the cases in front of us. However, if we only…
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Pits and Promise
The ongoing grind of COVID medicine is starting to wear, although the promise of reopening is tantalizingly just out of reach. The everyday aggravation of life in pandemic times feels like we are all walking around with nerves exposed, as if a protective layer of resilience has rubbed off over the past year and a…
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The Incredible Hulk in L&D?
People are complicated. Everyone is a mix of good and bad. I have been reading about and watching the television biography of Oliver Sacks. I have also been preparing a podcast on the history of obstetrics, which made me confront J. Marion Sims’ racism in the context of his important contribution to women’s health through…
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A Day in the Life at the Vaccine Clinic
Last week I worked at a vaccine clinic in Montreal. I volunteered as a vaccinator when the director of Professional Services of our hospital and the head of the regional health authority asked for help in the Quebec campaign to get the population vaccinated as quickly and efficiently as possible. I am supposed to be…
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A Good Death
When I interview medical students for positions in the family medicine residency, I often ask them to tell me a story of a patient who has been meaningful to them or taught them something. It is remarkable how often these stories have to do with death and their first or early encounters with the dying. …