Savage.MD Blog

Last week I lost my first patient from my continuity clinic. It was sudden and unexpected. When I got to work I had a notification on the EMR that the patient had just been seen in urgent care and was admitted to the ICU. I checked the chart again at noon and the patient was intubated and her labs were quite abnormal. At 4 pm, I got a notification that she had passed away. I was very sad about this, and I was also sad for her husband. I called him as soon as I got the news to tell him how sorry I was for his loss. It happened so quickly and I know he was not expecting it. He and I had just touched base about how things were going last weekend. It's such a privilege to take care of people with cancer.  There's always the chance that cancer might progress despite treatment, but usually it's an incremental process and everyone has time to prepare. I think sudden loss is the most difficult. I've thought about this patient and her family a lot this week, and I know their sto...

This is Labor Day weekend! Last year I had just finished my internal medicine board certification exam and celebrated with a trip to Houston. It's hard as always to think that another year elapsed. Yesterday I went to the Getty Villa and Getty Museum in Los Angeles. My dad visited the Getty in Nov 2009 when he was in LA for a work trip. I was in my first semester of medical school back then. At that point in my life I had only been to San Diego and never LA. The pictures he showed me were really impressive and surreal. Yesterday I imagined him walking through the same galleries as me and it really was special.  I also saw a famous sculpture the 18th century artist Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. I learned about him during my psychiatry course in medical school. He had schizophrenia, and his sculptures after developed this disease were considerably different than the very typical busts that he made earlier in his career. 

Tomorrow I'll start my third month of my second year of fellowship. The past two months have gone by quickly. Last Friday I was on top of the world - I had caught up on emails, patient logs, and held several productive research meetings during my research time. It felt like a great wrap to a month in the clinics. Then I experienced a setback. I got some late day feedback from a preceptor (who also helps me with my research) that I did not expect. It was well-meaning and I know it'll help me be a better doctor, but it was disappointing. In the midst of reading that feedback, I got a call from my brother. He was having a bad week at work, and he made some disparaging remarks toward me and my work. This really piled on at the worst time. The rest of Friday I really felt sad and had a very hard time sleeping. I write this all so that I can remember that the road to improvement is often paved with setbacks. Today was good for my soul and allowed me to reset from the setbacks of Frid...

Fridays at the hospital can be busy as people try to wrap up things for the weekend. Today was quite the example of that.  I'm currently half way through my month on the BMT inpatient service. I woke up around 7:00 am and had a message and phone call from one of our junior fellows. She had admitted a patient with acute leukemia overnight. I got sign-out on this patient and our fellow did a great job! However, it was clear there were quite a few things to get done to take care of this patient today. I got to work just in time for morning division rounds on Zoom. While I listened to conference, I pre-rounded at the computer. I had several existing patients to see, and I needed to take care of things for this leukemia patient. Then I got a message that a new patient was on the floor and needed admission orders. I put those in, finished pre-rounding, and made my way to the floor to round with the team. After rounds there were many things to do. First, I did the bone marrow biopsy. I’ve...

I've spent the past year learning oncology and hematology with these three wonderful doctors - Raja, Quinne, and Joe. It's hard to believe that the first year is just weeks from being complete and that we'll start having our own continuity clinics in July. Time sure has flown fast! I had a really touching moment last week. I reached out to the family of a patient who recently transitioned to hospice care. The patient's son told me things were going well and offered to let me speak to his father. The patient told me, with excitement, about getting baptized, having his first communion, and getting married -- all since leaving the hospital! He also said that his daughter had started a crowdsource funding website to raise money for the patient and that it had "met its goal within hours." He told me how much it meant to be loved and cared for by so many people. I told him that this is truly a gift and a testament to the life he has lived. I shared this story with t...

Last Thursday after clinic, I made a beeline for the airport. I flew to New Orleans, arriving at the hotel around 11:30 pm. The next day I attended the AIAMC (Association for Independent Academic Medical Centers) National Initiative Conference that is presently focused on J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion) initiatives in medical education. I was able to meet a few leaders in the AIAMC face-to-face for the first time. I also reconnected with Dr. Bill McDade of the ACGME. Dr. McDade and I were on the AMA Council on Medical Education together when I was a medical student. Cafe Du Monde, New Orleans, March 2022 Friday night after the conference wrapped up, I put on my casual clothes for a walk around downtown New Orleans. It brought back so many good memories. My first trip there was in fall 2011 as a third-year medical student. I was getting more involved in the AMA’s Medical Student Section and I was serving as Chair of the Reference Committee. That ended up being a l...

Last Sunday would have been my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. My brother and I tried our best to fill the void created by our father's death last year by staging a game night with my mom over the weekend using Zoom. It felt good to be together as a family, but it was bittersweet. James Savage in 1974, age 18 I was so lucky to have a great father. I've spent a lot of time reading about him and going through his personal letters after his death. I've come to appreciate the depth of hardship that my father faced as a teenager. He moved out of his house at age 16 and was homeless with incredible food insecurity for over a year until he could afford an apartment of his own. He spent his teenage years hungry, poor, and with few friends or family to rely upon.  I don't think my dad would have ever imagined marrying a wonderful woman, owning a big piece of property in the country, making many happy memories with his family, and raising two sons who would become the firs...