A Summer BBQ Festival: A Face of America
The summer is finally descending on to our area. It seems as if the rain has been incessant, soaking my treasured tropical and cactus plants on my deck. We saw some speckles of sun yesterday and decided to keep our plan to go to a BBQ and Music festival in Washington DC. We are trying…
Parts Unknown: What I Will Miss About Anthony Bourdain
Over the years, I have heard of many suicides from patients and friends, from the media on famous people like the Hemingway family members or actor Robin Williams. There was an elderly patient who went to me for quite a few years, forming a mutual bond beyond the usual patient-doctor relationship. I knew many details…
Basic Strategies for Stress Management
Everyone deals with stress in his or her own way. Some of us seem to have as busy and as stressful a life as others, yet we seem to have little or no anxiety or depression, whereas others in similar situations suffer significantly. Some of us, when feeling stressed, develop “bad” habits, like drinking alcohol…
Letter to Johanny : Another Step to the Stars!
Dear Johanny, It has been three years since we first met, you as a third year college student from the Georgetown Scholarship Program, me as an obstetrician who came to tell you and your friends in the program about my journey as a young, poor immigrant trying to reach for the stars and achieving my…
Acrylamide in Coffee? I Am Not Giving Up My Daily Two Cups!
Every Sunday morning, a group of Lady Docs friends and I take our run or walk on the C&O canal by the Potomac River, a five mile run or four mile speed walk. We then regroup at the starting point and drive to Black Lion Cafe, a charming Ethiopian coffee house in Rockville, to…
March For Our Lives, Listen to the Children Cry!
In 2006, Elizabeth Edwards, ex-wife of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards poignantly told stories about her grief over her oldest son who had died in a car accident at 16 years old. Mrs. Edwards was fighting stage 4 breast cancer and died a few years after the interview. Elizabeth Edwards, like a typical…
A Quest for Longevity by the “Experts”
Three years ago, on Father’s Day, I wrote a blog about my father and how strong he was at 92 years old. Last weekend, we celebrated his 95th birthday. I was on call and delivered two babies, a boy and a girl. My patients were both beaming when I told them how their babies now…
Taxi Driver Wisdom
It is a beautiful weekend in the Washington area and all around the country. A group of friends from our Lady Docs circle and I decided months ago that we would spend a weekend together in a little town in the horse country of Virginia as our first gathering for 2018. Similar to January 20th of last year,…
The Power of Friendship, Our 2018 Message to You!
Wasn’t 2017 an overly interesting year? I do not recall another year when I would rush home from work almost everyday to have dinner in front of the television to watch the news and read the newspapers. I admit I had less time to exercise this year and vow to change that habit in 2018. …
It’s Hard to Be A Woman
It has been astonishing to watch the #MeToo movement, with one public man after another stepping down from their “pedestal” after being accused of sexual harassment. A notable exception is Roy Moore, who’s still running strong in the race for an Alabama Senate seat despite multiple accusations of sexual harassment. Recently, a woman came forward…