As a younger, Good Friday always felt like a day to lay low. Maybe the word is solemn. Like something else, other than the self, was more important. As a an older it’s how I feel today, on Sept 11th. My thirteen year-old was four on that day. We were driving through the Kentucky countryside […]
Author: Dr John
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When docs are "taken-up"…
It is that time of year again. School is back in session; the little virus vectors are out of their basements, off their video games and back amongst themselves in classrooms. In harboring infections, school-age children are like petri-dishes. Yes, as if there was need for further proof that doctors are human, I present as […]
It is Wednesday. Time to write on a cycling topic. My home town, Louisville, KY, on the northern side of America’s obesity belt has shown some flickers of enlightenment these days. Labor day, we had the Mayor’s hike and bike. This drew 7500 cyclists and walkers. These twice yearly (Memorial and Labor Day) cycling events […]
“Ouch! That really hurts!” “You win, please stop torquing my arm behind my back. “Uncle…I said, Uncle!!” Yes, the threshold has been reached. We docs no longer need a tennis court or a Mercedes, our kids are fine in public schools, and we will happily buy our own damn pens. But, please, just give us […]
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Thank You!…
Now that I have been writing this blog for a full year, it is time for a year-end review. It is a time to say thank you to those people and web sites that I not only learn from nearly every day, but more importantly, have helped me find my way in this new forest. […]
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One year!!!
One year ago, this weekend, what started as some simple commentary on a bike race, or a ride, has morphed into opinion statements on many different aspects of what life presents to me. Since what I know the most about is electrophysiology, writing on matters of the heart seemed logical. Even after nearly two decades, […]
I hear it every day. The pattern is so repetitive. “I am so fatigued. I just wear out so easily. At the end the day, I am done.” The spouse may often add, “he is so short-winded, even little things.” Doc, I thought it was just my age, or stress, or that I am not […]
Say what you wish about social media. Say it is distracting, or privacy threatening, or that Facebook “friends” are not like real friends. Yes, this is true, I get the downsides of over-connectedness. Today though, I discovered a huge positive of social media, Facebook in particular. The degree of the good sensations surprised me. The […]
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Questions…
The patient asked me–in a very serious tone–a series of unusually frank questions. “You look young, how many ablations have you done? How many years of experience do you have? “I have read the success rate is 90% at ___ institute… What is your success rate?” Honestly, it caught me by surprise. For a brief moment, […]
This morning I am told, “Dr Mandrola, there are two ladies from this company, Boehinger Ingelheim, who need to to give you a secret, sealed envelope.” I wonder whether the department of Health and Human Services knows about this exciting new potential warfarin substitute. Surely they do, as replacing the ubiquitous blood thinner warfarin with […]
The medical assistant who checked the patient in tells me, “Dr Mandrola, this guy had coronary artery disease since the 1980’s. He is 90 years-old now, and his only medicines are that statin and aspirin.” One of the more common questions that arises in cardiology is whether a person should take a statin drug. Despite […]