For three years I’ve been thinking about divorcing my husband. Google tells me there are trillions of nerves in my body, and Barry has gotten under every last one. The scary thing is I’ve never lived alone, not once in… Continue Reading
They grew a heart for her and had operated by the time Dr. Kracauer realised his colleague, Dr. Montague, misread the scan. “I didn’t misread it,” he said. “I read the report. I always do. It was all there.” “She… Continue Reading
He wakes up the next day, surprised to discover that his missing thumb is back. The doctor, who had advised Ted yesterday that she couldn’t fix the smashed digit, is even more perplexed. She’d amputated the limb just 24 hours… Continue Reading
Cass stood at the top of the steps and listened. Her mother and her sister were downstairs in the living room, watching the news. The news story drifted up the stairs like a cold draft. “…miraculous escape from the clutches… Continue Reading
Desi leans against the car, struggling to control her breathing. She straightens her airway like the doctor taught her. Breathe in, breathe in again, then breathe out. She closes the trunk of her father’s station wagon and cranks the cold… Continue Reading
“Mr. Thompson, Dr. Wheeler will see you now.” I follow the nurse into the narrow hallway and through the rigmarole of bodily metrics. In the examination room, she asks me to remove my shirt. I comply, blushing, directing my vision… Continue Reading
Humphrey Bogart’s life was, in all respects, banal. He was waiting for the next patient in his examination room, watching the hands of his clock parse time. Decades ago, doctors would have enjoyed this respite lounging in the facility break… Continue Reading
“Why do we have to rotate on Labor and Delivery?” I say. “It has nothing to do with neurosurgery.” “Oh for God’s sake,” Sheila says. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and some poor pregnant woman will have a brain tumor, just… Continue Reading
Didn’t want to be here but knew I had to be. Ovarian cancer. Stuart, who had been my doc forever, it seemed, convinced me to get the kind of care I needed by going to a big medical center. He… Continue Reading
When he first arrived to town, we took it as a sign, a bad omen sent to unravel us. We all knew about these oddities, distinguished by their missing half, grotesque and unnerving. He was a monstrous sight alright, this… Continue Reading