Posts in “doctor”
Take Six: On Life, Death, and Healthcare
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
Different Lives, Different Cultures, Different Experiences
Catherine and John Graves’s story describes the challenges of being the sole-caregiver to a spouse with a life-threatening disease: a glioblastoma, or brain tumor. This article describes how she struggled with his personality changes as the frontal lobe location of the tumor affected Graves’ affect, cognition, and judgment. Catherine describes becoming anxious, depressed, and with post-traumatic stress after his death. Caregiver burnout is not unusual in these cases. Instead of post-traumatic stress, this is a constant stress situation that tends to be under-recognized and under-treated.
Continue reading ‘Take Six: On Life, Death, and Healthcare’
It’s Showtime
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
Welcome! What a pleasure it is to share the lessons learned and exciting projects with you! Dr. Gaby’s Take: Make Life Interesting is all about the amazing people I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and the valuable lessons I’ve learned from them.
Continue reading ‘It’s Showtime’
The Danger of Bias
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
Natalia, my daughter, was only six years old when she came running home from school one day, eager to tell me what she had just learned in art class. I was in my early thirties at the time. I’d had her when I was twenty-two and then graduated from med school as a doctor at twenty-four, with her and my son in tow. So when she told me this story, I was a young mom as well as a young doctor training in psychiatry at the time.
Natalia was so excited, she didn’t have enough breath to tell me everything that had happened to her in the one minute she got to me. It was odd for her to be so thrilled, almost agitated by whatever she had to tell me.
Her excitement suddenly made sense when she told me she had learned about Vincent Van Gogh and his amazing story. She loved his art, but wow, what a story she had to tell about his personal life! Almost immediately after talking about his art, she blurted out: “You know, Mom? He cut off his ear and then he killed himself.”
Continue reading ‘The Danger of Bias’
Stay Awake While Working at Night
By: Dr. Gaby Cora
The Federal Aviation Administration suspends a controller for watching a movie during his shift. This is another incident to add to other suspensions, mostly for sleeping on the job. Who’s at fault: the controller or the system in which the controller works? Although workers may focus better at their daytime job, night work offers a challenge: how do you stay awake when you are alone and when you are not so busy?
Continue reading ‘Stay Awake While Working at Night’
