Stray Thoughts: Goodbye to my Good Boy

When we take them in, nothing could be simpler. Puppies need love, and we fall over ourselves to make sure they get all they need. That’s how they get you… Soon you are walking them and driving them around and playing with them on the nicest days of seemingly endless summers.

It’s time for your checkup

Recently I received a mailing from my clinic reminding me it is time to schedule my annual preventative care physical. Apparently, doctors need to go to the doctor, too, even when they feel fine. As a primary care physician, one of my passions is preventative care.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

It’s been years since we bought eggs in a store. Because I am reluctant to cull our older hens, nor do I put a light in the coop, we don’t get many eggs in winter.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Last week marked the Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated so ubiquitously in China that is sometimes simply called Chinese New Year. This week also marks the 25th anniversary of my arrival in Shanghai, China to begin a semester abroad.

Not all that forgets is dementia

Frequently, my patients will come to a visit and bring up a major concern: “Doc, I think I might have dementia; my memory seems to be slipping.” They might give examples of having difficulty finding words, forgetting people’s names, or just feeling like their thinking is slower.

Stray Thoughts: Don’t bite the hand

Have you ever been asked by a family member or friend to do something for them…something that will require not only a lot of your time, but also your money and for you to drop everything in your life to help?

Little Pasture on the Prairie

As I have described many times before, I am better than no help at all around the ranch, but sometimes only barely. I’ve become increasingly confident and competent over the decade of living here, but there is still and always will be, a lot to learn.

Extending the Golden Hour

When I was a young physician, we talked with almost religious zeal about the “Golden Hour.” Early on, this principally focused on the idea that within the first hour after an injury, a patient needed to receive definitive treatment in order to maximize the chances of survival, and recovery.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

We’ve now entered that vast stretch of time postholidays when the majority of winter still lies ahead and we have only the brief festivities of Valentine’s Day to break up the short, cold days.

Stray Thoughts: Street-level philosophy

It seems reasonable to assume that rabbits are not responsible for most of the major great bits of philosophical thought on earth. I mean, they just don’t have the brains for it.