I was talking to a woman today about her brother. Her brother's a great musician, but recently lost his day job. When I asked about the brother losing his job, she responded, "He's hit rock bottom. He's thinking about picking back up the banjo."
And then she grinned and we both got a good laugh.
But then I felt bad because that's how the banjo discrimination starts...
41 yo FM doc here. Recently found out that I lost a high school classmate. Great dude, seemingly in great shape. May have had some drug issues, and probably was on steroids. Left a beautiful young family with beautiful young kids.
And here I am, going through labwork on stable elderly patients, working up trivial complaints late into the evenings. The guy that needed all of the healthcare resources in the world was my classmate that passed away. And now his family needs them. But I have a feeling they won't get them.
I chose FM because it seemed to be more about the bigger picture. But American medicine seems to have me chasing urine protein on people with well controlled diabetes, ordering stress tests because somebody just won't stop complaining about their MSK pain, sifting through unnecessary tests because some moronic influencer suggested everybody on the planet has Hashimoto's or chronic Lyme.
You guys ever think it'll change? I chronically feel like I'm trying to compensate for a failing public health system - addictive and horrible foods, zero physical activity, failing mental health due to lack of social support and the evils of social media, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc etc etc.
We've lost our way, and we've completely lost the big picture.
Here's hoping. I'll quit complaining - I've got to go finish some charts...
My 10 year old drew this for my Father’s Day gift! It’s my two dogs traveling in my ‘02 Sequoia 😂🤣.
Happy Father’s Day to all out there!
Saw a 92 yo female with severe dementia today. Her wonderful caregivers brought her in. Despite her horrible memory, she still sings church hymns beautifully, including harmony.
We discussed the usual stuff - constipation, agitation, new meds, caregiver stress.
Then the main caregiver asked if I wanted the pt to sing for me. I responded "Absolutely!"
She sang one, then I grabbed the guitar that I keep in my office, and played Amazing Grace while she sang. In perfect tune, in key, zero missed words.
Somedays family medicine sucks. Somedays I sit in awe of this entire human experience.
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/clinical-trials/2026/03/03/18/35/closure-af
Anybody else keep up with these studies? This was a really well done study that essentially said, "Sorry, Watchmans aren't as good as anticoagulation", but I feel like certain cardiology groups are pushing Watchmans more and more.
The longer I do this, the more I feel like we should be leaving people alone significantly more than we do. Studies like this put me in a bind when a patient that's done really well with anticoagulation says, "My heart doc says I need one of them Watchmans!"
https://x.com/RepGregMurphy/status/2056885928459665830?s=20
Anybody else just feel complete rage that a congressman wouldn't look at the reasons why physicians are leaving, and instead just essentially say, "suck it up and deal with it"?
I actually really, really enjoy patient care. The administrative stuff is the singular reason why so many leave. But tweets like that make me want to quit medicine and invite Greg Murphy to my Going Away Party.