Let’s see if we can come to some consensus about what a doctor looks and acts like. I’m going to share my experience which may be very limited and provincial. Feel free to share your opinions as we go along to help us flesh out this definition.

Gender: any Skin tone: limited to the available hues available to humans on earth. (Note: tattoos are okay, so we’ll add the visible spectrum)

Country of origin: limited to the countries on earth

Religion: any. (Note: my nurse friend practices Satanism. He’s very nice)

I know I shouldn’t do it and it’s unkind to take advantage of another person’s weakness but when I come across a short-tempered person who is quick to anger I sometimes make them angry on purpose. Then I make them come, sit, lie down, and roll over. It’s just so easy. When I was younger and (more of a) hothead people did this to me. I never understood the irony that my anger I used to gain power and control actually made me very easy to manipulate.

The light went on when I realized my anger was a response to being hurt.

Attaching emotion to physical objects that are inherently temporary leads to inevitable sadness. #MuseoNacionalDeBrasil You have two superior options:
1. Celebrate each day a temporary physical item is not destroyed. “Good morning, coffee cup! It is so great to see you not broken again today!!”
2. Put your effort and emotion into unbreakable eternal projects. Beads on the string of causation.

There is a line between sickness and health where we stop treating the person like a person, “hi it’s Dr. Reid here, nice to meet you,” and start treating them like a situation or a procedure “hand me that suction, this is a tough one.” When I was a rookie, this line was way out here towards health. To the the point where the patient might say, “I can hear you. I’m right here.”

If patients are the enemy, call in sick today.
Set to work on your spiritual condition.*
Keep calling in every day until you’ve set it right. *I use this term a lot and people don’t know what I am talking about.

Spiritual Condition manifests as compassion, forgiveness, empathy, gratitude, generosity. It’s not those things though. It the feeling of wholeness, safety, strength, connectedness, appreciation.

Even more powerful:

- walk up to a colleague you don’t always agree with or who seems not to respect your opinion
- out of the blue, thank them for being a dependable & helpful colleague and all their good work
- walk away leaving them shocked or baffled
- do it again I enjoy this kind of thing. It is subversive. The Evil Demons who would like to keep shirts playing skins and X fighting O despise this kind of disturbance.

Vanishing grudges and dropped resentments infuriate the Evil Demons who thrive on conflict and hatred.

Try this today: Compliment your colleagues
- Notice what they do well
- Let patients know how lucky they are to see them
- Mention a time when they inspired you
- Appreciate their skill
- Celebrate their wonderfulness

@choo_ek @screamingmd @MDaware @HeartOTXHeartMD @laxswamy After so much training and work, and daily labor to heal the sick, we tend to take each other for granted—nit pick and critique when we should be grateful for their remarkable talents and boundless efforts.

@DrJenGunter @DGlaucomflecken @emily_fri @adamcifu @drjenniferbest

I don’t know why medical people want to take responsibility for cost containment.
a) patients will find out and know you’re skimping to try to get paid more
b) why take responsibility for a problem that is not yours?
c) why put your salary at risk for caring for sicker patients?

https://twitter.com/medicalaxioms/status/1026597530904084480

Seriously. I don’t get it at all. I’m a doctor. I can’t fix a $20,000,000,000,000 debt at the US treasury or the 19% GDP. It’s not my problem. If the people with the money don’t want to pay, I want my patients to know that.

I'm going to @Costco today to get some of those multicolored dishwasher biscuits but I feel like I might need something else while I am there. What could it be?

My conceptual approach to giving diagnostic and treatment plans and recommendations.
1. I have a $100 bill, $50 and sometimes $1.
2. I show them to you and tell you to take the $100. It’s the best.
3. I’ll tell you more about the $50 and $1 if you want.

~thread~ You are 50 y/o F with fever and cough. T40, P120, R30, BP 88/52. WBC 24K. CXR shows R pneumonia with effusion.

$100: You have pneumonia I’m starting antibiotics
$1: Could be something else. Go home and call me in a few days

Most of us are whiny and ungrateful. We get more than we give and still complain about how the world is unfair to us.

We ignore all the sacrifices of people who have helped us and begrudge a little request for help from others.

(Keep reading. There’s more!) We want to be judged by our character but feel comfortable judging others by their external traits in moment without further investigation.

We threaten and yell at people to change their behavior althoughfew among us have changed their mind under such an attack.

(Not done)

Let’s agree that as a doctor you can dream up some solutions to your patients’ problems that they can’t think of. 1/ It’s not a radical concept. You went to school and trained for years. You aren’t just here to listen to your patient’s differential diagnosis and treatment plan. 2/

Joining The Suffering in their suffering does not reduce their suffering. It only increases their ranks.

Daily Prayer of Gratitude

I’m thankful I: (leave off any you haven’t done)
- was born alive
- was cared for and cared for someone (or animal)
- loved and was loved
- made some friends
- learned and grew
- found purpose
- experienced joy
- helped someone who needed it This is my #bucketlist. I finished it first at about age 5. By 18, I’d done most a few times or more. The last 30+ years have been more and more of the same. Wealth on top of luxury. A miracle of good fortune for which I am grateful and appreciative.

They say MDs don’t know much about nutrition. I’m here to prove them wrong.

Hot Dog + V8 = Peanut butter on a rice cake is

It’s tempting to make Other People the cause of Life’s Problems.

It’s quick and easy—assume their motives, pass judgment and assign blame.

The downside is loss of power. As a result of placing blame outward, you accept that people control you; direct you; dominate you. In the short term, it feels empowering—you are good, other people are flawed.

In the long term, you become disempowered; dominated, imprisoned, & victimized by every next person you blame.

They all have the power to cause you more problems. You can only turn away, again.

What’s your best definition of “health”?

Hint: Although we call the system “healthcare,” allopathic (western) medicine operates in a disease model. Textbooks of pathology. Diagnose and treat. It’s not Harrison’s Textbook of Health. I’ll get us started.

Health is the absence of disease.

This is wrong. If you are 20 y/o and have type 1 diabetes and are set up proper on your pump and compete in collegiate athletics, you may be healthier than 98% of the general population. Try again!

The intern is the hand.
The attending is the brain.
What is the resident? I won’t lie, I love it when you rascals read my mind.

A few mass shootings ago I figured out America’s Hero Problem:

1. America loves guns because
2. Guns make villains and
3. Villains make heroes

#Annapolis
Villain: Shooter
Heroes:
1. Every American, thoughtful and prayerful
2. First responders
3. Every proud gun owner... 3... who can tell everyone what he would have done so bravely with his flawless marksmanship in a panicked situation. Oh how the crowds would adore him at the parades around the country. The radio interviews. Free duffel bags of cash. All past errors absolved. Loved, finally.

In these days at the end of June 22 years ago I began to formulate my internship mantra:

Remove unnecessary motion.

#TipsForNewDocs Anything you do must move you towards the goal of completion. You don't "read the patient's old medical record." You "write a summary of the patient's past medical history." Always active, never passive.

If you are starting the think you might be depressed, or that you brain is out to kill you, here’s what you do:

1. Find a or call your primary care IM of family MD. When you call for an appointment and they ask what for, say “depression.” 1/ Notice how the scheduler doesn’t flinch. They get this call 4 times a day!

2. When you get to the doctor, and they ask what’s wrong, just say, “I want you to do those screening tools on me to see if I’m depressed.” Let them do their thing. 2/