It is not surprising that almost half of all seniors living in long-term care have been diagnosed with depression. How should we, as physician caregivers, respond?
Chronic pain has no cure. The patients are often angry with us for failing them.
We struggle to keep them working. My heart used to sink when I saw a chronic pain patient on my list.
A patient who kept on wanting massage therapy for his chronic anxiety but wouldn’t consider meds or psychotherapy. That didn’t thrill Dr. Jassam—but then the patient’s requests went to something he had to say no to.
Frank F., aged 69, was not aging gracefully. While there wasn’t a specific acute episode of deterioration of any single condition, his overall health was declining incrementally and progressively.
The flu shot starts to work two weeks after you get it, and its effectiveness wears off after a couple of months. Most influenza comes in Dec. and on. Yet pharmacies seem to be promoting folks to get flu shots in October.
In the past 11 years, I have now officially lived in four different provinces (and moved between five), all in the name of medical education (and my final staff “resting place” here in B.C).
