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My Mother Was A Thief
I was misdiagnosed with brain damage at birth and put up for adoption. My mother climbed over the walls of the facility and stole me out. “Your only child will be stupid.” They said when they caught her. She signed the papers. My mother gave me life twice. And I give her everything I am.
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Tai Nai Nai
97 years ago, my great-grandmother (Tai Nai Nai) walked by a new mother’s open window on a cold winter morning and saw that she was trying to freeze her baby to death. What my Tai Nai Nai did next would change the fate of two families. Today, almost a century later, no one remembers Tai Nai Nai’s name. But everyone talks about her kindness. And her 97-year-old son (my great-uncle) is living proof. She was Benevolence. And we are all her legacy.
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Where Is Home?
10 years ago, serendipitously, I, a girl from Beijing, came to live in a small town in New Hampshire. My landlords are an old couple, who didn’t just take me into their home, but made this little place in the mountains home FOR me.
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The Angry Daughter
who shares my name
Questions I Wish I Asked FM Residency Programs
Residency is a physically and emotionally exhausting time of a physician’s life, and it can be so unforgiving. Choose your program carefully. Here is a (very honest) list of questions I wish I asked during my residency interviews.
I apologized as a doctor. This is what happened…
Doctors make mistakes, like all humans do. But when was the last time you received an sincere apology from your doctor when it was called for? I dissect my own vulnerabilities and pride through the two stories where I apologized: once to a nurse, and once to a patient.
The Therapeutic Silence
“How did you get the patient to talk to you?” I asked the counselor, after failing miserably to do so myself. “I just sat with her, until she was ready to talk”. As information gatherers, sometimes we forget that the “awkward” silence can be the exact thing that forms a therapeutic relationship.
8 Practical Tips to Stay On Top of Charting
We all love to chart so much as physicians (not). I pride myself in spending almost no time on charting at home, and having a very clean InBasket. Here are my 8 practical tips to help you stay on top of charting.
Pros and Cons of Being a Country Doctor
Wondering if rural full-scope family medicine is for you as a career path? Wondering what the life of a country doctor is like? Look no further. This is my list of Pros and Cons of my beloved career path to help you make a decision about yours.
50 ways to die as a healthcare worker.
Violence toward healthcare workers is not a new phenomenon, but it is escalated recently by both the pandemic and gun violence. This rising yet hidden pandemic is deadly to both the healthcare providers and healthcare itself.
A Small Opening to a Big Problem
Rectiv, the only FDA-approved 0.4% nitroglycerin topical cream, costs over $700 without insurance. My young patient's anal fissure, was just a small opening to a big problem in our country: the monstrous drug prices.
The Outside Provider
You know the providers from small hospitals who call you to consult? That's me now. I used to be the consulting hospital provider, and now I am the Outside Provider. And let me tell you my side of the story.
Hide Away, Little Abby!
Dr. Zed Zha sees a young girl in her office who has a very distressing pattern of hair loss, a condition she shares with the patient. The patient was so ashamed of her condition, she kept her head down for the entire visit. Zed realizes that the best healing to provide in this moment, is to give the patient space to hide away. One day she will come out of hiding on her own terms. Not being able to get through to the patient, Zed decided to write her a letter.
If You Don’t Give Up, I Don’t Give Up.
The Cook Catheter for ripening the cervix during labor induction.
