• WHAT I DO: SURGICAL CONSENT

    If I look back on 40-something-years of training and practicing medicine, I can certainly think of many things wrong with “the system.” But there’s so much positive, that it outweighs the negative, resulting in an amazing and wonderful career path for most doctors, and good treatment for their patients. That certainly was the case for me. But there were things. Things that drop the scale a little. And one of those things was the Informed Consent. I don’t know when this became a thing, but I do know that in my residency training, the need to obtain informed consent was drilled into our heads. We must get informed consent for…

  • Post-Operative Constipation

    This usually isn’t a big problem after surgery, but frankly it should never have to be a problem. Anesthetic agents and pain pills slow down the function of the bowel and bladder. Now an acute problem with your bladder is pretty much going to land you in the emergency room so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that. If you can’t get things going by chasing well-wishing onlookers out of the room, running water, or running warm water over your hands, then it’s off to the ER with you. End of story. Don’t wait too long or you’ll get yourself in a heap of trouble. It’s…