I have always hated housework. I often joke (though it’s not really a joke) that I became a doctor in order to have a good excuse not to do it. I’m extremely lucky that, among his many virtues, my husband loves to do housework. His idea of a really good day is to be puttering around the house, creating order… Read More »Dirt, marriage and cataract surgery
As I sat at my kitchen table, coughing while immersed in self-pity and surrounded by snotty tissues, my friend Eva texted me from Labour and Delivery at NYGH in Toronto. She was waiting for her multiparous patient to open fully to the idea of getting her baby out. “Have you read Ted Jablonski’s column this morning? I almost spit up my coffee,… Read More »A profound response
I have previously written about how I slid across the floor and caught a baby just in time. Now I have a confession to make: I once dropped a baby. This was the second month of my rotating internship and I was so excited to be doing my obstetrics rotation at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal. I was eager, scared and green… Read More »Perle Feldman drops the baby
Last week, I was on-call in Labour and Delivery. I was working with a first-year family medicine resident. She’s part of the cohort whose entire clerkship took place during the pandemic. McGill made the decision that since the students were not yet physicians, they should be protected from the virus as much as possible. As a result, this resident, like… Read More »In praise of hands
I am a professional nice person. I have the great privilege of getting paid well to do good in the world. I am able to relieve suffering, help people navigate the difficulties of their lives and sometimes even cure diseases. I take pride in doing it well. I take on patients who are marginalized and I think I go the… Read More »My sister: A New Year’s meditation
As I inch towards a peri-retirement, I am grateful for the long-standing flexibility my on-call group has used for many years—to the benefit of practitioners at many different stages in their careers. In a follow up to my last story, I decided to stop taking obstetrics call. I was very touched by the universal support from my on-call group, who… Read More »Report from Burnoutville: Flexibility creates families out of teams
I went to my butchers recently. Our favorite young butcher, Benjamin, looking even more dapper than usual, came up to us with a smile. “I have news,” he said smiling. “Good or bad?” I was apprehensive; worried that he was leaving the store. I really did not want to lose this personable and capable young man from my life. My… Read More »Report from Burnoutville: To Quit or not To Quit
Our Family Medicine OB group keeps in touch with each other over WhatsApp. This is where we sort out our inevitable On Call issues, ask questions, share the latest gossip, and commiserate with each other. There’s another, allegedly, even more secure app where we tell each other about what we euphemistically call “Patients of Note” i.e. the patients who are… Read More »Story time for patients who won’t listen
Sandra sent me two videos to watch. In the first, Vanessa, looking like a Cranach Madonna or an early Renaissance painting of St. Cecelia, pours the elegance and order of Bach from her Cello de Gamba. This is her award-winning performance from an international competition. As I watch, I marvel at the miracle entailed by a person playing an instrument so… Read More »Catch a falling baby
Hospital food is much maligned and rightly so. It is usually bland, overcooked and just this side of inedible. This has only become worse over the years as hospitals economize by decreasing staff and outsourcing catering to lower the number of unionized employees in the kitchen. As a medical student, the cafeteria lunches and dinners outside the white table-clothed private… Read More »Hospital food: the good, the bad and the ugly