The Year In Review (Friday Links)

Doctor D will take this first day of 2010 to reflect on this last year...

In May of 2009 a young physician decided to name his alter ego "Doctor D" and become a medblogger.

He hadn't even read medbloggers before, but he really wanted to frankly discuss health and medicine so he opened a blog and put up some random post asking people to send in questions to some anonymous MD who was willing to spill the beans.

Doctor D just ignored the blog for 3 months, expecting a readerless blog to magically generate interesting questions his email box.

In August Doctor D finally decided he really wanted to do this, so he started posting answers to random questions that popped into his head.

Thankfully, a blogger named Magda stumbled across Ask An MD and asked the first question: about finding a new doctor. D was so thrilled he answered it in a 4-part series.

Since then the questions have been rolling in!

Along the way Doctor D has met some really amazing people on the web. The first person to show D the medblogging ropes was WarmSocks. She blogs about her experience as a patient and she explained to Doctor D how to make a blog like this helpful to people navagating the healthcare system. Later D met other cool patient-bloggers like Neo-Conduit, Queen, Wren, Helen, who really are must-reads for medical folk who want to understand the suffering and strength of a lot of the patients we care for every day.

Doctor D also wants to thank the inspiring patients he has met over email. Many readers don't have blogs, but have shared their experiences with him. D wishes the whole world could hear your stories.

Nurse K was the first and still the awesomest medical-worker blogger to welcome Doctor D to the net! Even though her ER blog is now on hiatus K has always been D's webcrush and he still reads her twitter religiously. Ask An MD has also been visited by such great medical bloggers as Nurse Maha, Nurse Lee, Doctor Rob, Ell the med student, and the hilarious Dr. Grumpy.

So Doctor D has met some very cool people, answered a lot of questions, and had a lot of fun. Ask An MD is getting hundreds of visitors each day and it's really only a few months old. Keep those questions coming!

Thank you all for a great 2009!

So what do you think? What have you liked and disliked about the blog this year? What direction do you think Doctor D should take the blog in 2010? What sorts of questions do you think Doctor D should be selecting from the mail bag in 2010?

Pregnancy Quiz

So Doctor D normally isn't one to tell stories about his patients' wackiness, but some things are just so odd they demand a teaching moment in the form of a Grumpy-style multiple choice quiz:

You are 39 weeks pregnant and you start feeling the "really bad pain" that keeps coming every 5 minutes. You should:

A. Call your OB

B. Get to the big hospital where your OB delivers babies

C. Wait about 14 hours till you just can't stand it anymore, then drive yourself in the other direction to the tiny hospital ER with no delivery rooms, no neonatal resuscitation equipment, no surgical backup, and ask Doctor D if he can do anything to make the pain stop.

If you answered C it was an honor to be a part of the miracle of your child's birth this morning, and yes, that is what labor feels like so please choose A or B next time.

Thank God women have been having babies without doctors since time began, because all Doctor D had to resuscitate this slippery kiddo was an oxygen mask and his own two hands!

Any readers have fun stories about babies joining our big bright world?

The Curse of Doctor D (Friday Dead Links)

Be afraid! Doctor D is the kiss of death for really great medical blogs!

Just when Doctor D says to himself, "This is my favorite blog on the whole frickin' internet!" the blog suddenly disappears. Not just stops updating, but disappears completely into password protected oblivion!

First came Crass Pollination by Nurse K. Doctor D laughed so hard reading those wild tales from Nurse K's ER! It closed just a few weeks after Doctor D found it. Coincidence?

Then just this week Doctor D was reading Journey to MD and said to himself, "I really enjoy Ella's witty commentary and stories from medical school. I think this is my favorite medblog of all!" And suddenly it's gone... without even a "Hiatus" post!

This is some dangerous stuff! I am desperately trying not to love Dr. Grumpy lest I inadvertently destroy his blog as well. But in case I don't succeed, you should read the post about drunk doctors, the story of Mr. Jackass, and the time Happy Hospitalist got schooled by Grumpy right now!

Doctor D's new found blog-killing power really should be harnessed and used for good! Feel free to let Doctor D know in your comments which medblogs should be spared and which should be destroyed.

Ella and Nurse K if you are out there, please come back! I promise not to annihilate your blogs again.

*UPDATE: So just a few hours after I posted this Ella's Blog reappeared! WTF? Was she just messing with Doctor D to see if he missed her? Welcome back Ella! Now we just need to figure out how to do the same for Nurse K!

Crazy Brain Doctors: Why Are Neurologists So Strange?

Doctor D recently got a fascinating question about Neurologists. Rather than make something up, Doctor D decided to use his other strategy for covering his ignorance: consult a specialist. Luckily he was able to beg the finest Neurologist in the blogsphere to answer your question. If you haven't yet discovered Dr. Grumpy and his wacky patients you are missing out!

Question: After many years of seeing neurologists I've come to the conclusion that all neurologists are either A) a tad crazy or B) an asshole. I only continue my Doctor-Patient relationships with the ones that are crazy as I prefer crazy folks to assholes. Why do you think they seem to fall in one of these two categories? I haven't noticed this polarizing break down in any other specialists I've seen.

"I freely admit that it seems more neurologists are 'different', though the degree can vary from slightly eclectic to downright scary. I read years ago that, as a percentage, more neurologists are left-handed than any other branch of medicine. I assume this means something, but I have no idea what. I'd like to think I'm at least on the more benign side of the whole thing, but I have no idea what they say about me outside of here.

I agree that the field seems oddly polarized at times, though not sure I've noticed the extremes you have. In my position, though I don't personally don't see how another doc treats his patients in the office. I wish I had an answer as to why it is so, but I don't.

I could also say the same about patients. The majority of them (who I'm not writing about) are decent people. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't like them. But there are certainly those who I've had acrimonious relationships with from the first moment. I've had some get up and walk out of my office. The bottom line is that how we-see-you and you-see-us is highly subjective, based on the intangible nature of human chemistry. The same docs that you think are assholes likely have a share of loyal patients, and those you like certainly have other patients who think they're incompetent and/or scum.

And I agree with you on who you choose to see. If the docs are equally competent, then I'd rather see a benign eccentric than an ass."

-Dr. Grumpy

Send Doctor D your question!