I was home free - in my final year of medical school, with one last rotation to finish. I had matched into a residency in Obstetrics. The tsunami of stress that had loomed over the past year - choosing a specialty, interviewing all over the country, waiting for the life-altering but fickle match - had passed. I knew where I was going and what I was doing.
There will be days ahead when patients bring you their most prized and flawed possessions - their broken bodies, their flagging spirits, their waning hope. They will wonder - Can I get back to my loved ones, my life, my dreams? Will you help me? Do you care?
Discussing sex can be awkward - with your spouse or your physician. Read this list of ten suggestions and see what you think. Then take it home and leave it on the nightstand or in the bathroom. Hopefully it will start a conversation that makes sparks fly.
When a patient arrives on Labor and Delivery clutching her Birth Plan, I'll admit I want to escape immediately to a remote, uninhabited island with no modern form of communication. I would consider crating the carrier pigeons too. (To be fair, I’m sure that’s how the computer dudes at Apple’s Genius Bar feel whenever I walk in to see them.)
