What's Up With Doctor D?

What happened to Friday Links? Is everything okay, Doctor D?

Okay, I must confess since Lent have not been the blogger I was before. Perhaps I should explain...

A couple months ago Lady D got a call from "The Man" offering he admission to his law school. She accepted and now the D family is in the midst of an epic move from a medium-sized town to a giant megalopolis. In addition to full-time doctoring D is spending most of his free time packing up boxes, which has cut down on the blogging time. The D family will start a new life in the bustling big city and D will start a new job. It is a bit of a shock for a doctor that did his training in rural medicine.

Wait, aren't doctors and lawyers mortal enemies? How could you let your beloved wife become one of those bloodsuckers?

Excellent point: doctors still live in dread of lawyers. Even more reason to have my own spy right in the enemy camp!

Doctor D is staying faithful to write one answer post each week, but beyond that his game has slipped a bit. He doesn't even get time to read his favorite medblogs. Even Dr. Grumpy sometimes goes unread. Dr. D will occasionally throw up a cool medblog link on twitter, but otherwise he's too busy to go find a brilliant post every week.

But never fear! After the boxes are packed, then loaded in a truck, then unpacked again D shall bring back the Links, along with new Big D Awards and some other cool stuff D has in mind. We might even try to host Grand Rounds here one of these days if Doctor D survives gridlock and the company of lawyers.

Until then keep sending in those questions and every week D will keep providing you with brilliant and entertaining answers every week (even if he isn't hitting that Monday deadline as well as he used to)! I might even take to that odd habit a lot of medbloggers have of filling you in on little details of my personal life.

Wish me luck on my move!

Neo Links Needed! (Friday Links)

Alas, one of the great patient medblogs is no more!

Neo-Conduit's Blog is gone.

Doctor D has really loved getting to know patients through the blogging medium.

D has spent a lot of time with patients in exam rooms and hospitals over the years, but he has often wondered, "What do they really think about doctors and medical care after they go home?" Doctor D always meets you in that very weird place they call the "doctor-patient encounter" where both people's behavior, perception, and personality are distorted by the odd roles we are assigned to play.

For healthcare providers, patient blogs offer a fascinating peak into the private thoughts of patients. Anonymous blogs allow people with medical issues to express their minds with a candidness they are rarely able to display face to face with their doctor or nurse. In blogs we see the humanity of patients through their stories, their triumphs, their frustrations, their fears, their angers, their rants.

Any healthcare provider that really wants to "help people" should read patient blogs on a regular basis.

Neo-Conduit was that sort of blog. Neo had suffered severe surgical complications resulting in chronic pain and multiple infections to her urinary system. Her blog told the story of her injuries, her frustration with doctors, her observations of other patients, and her personal feelings about life with illness. Reading Neo-Conduit was always entertaining and mind-opening.

Her blog has been gone for several weeks now. No hiatus or anything—just gone! Leaving nothing but the dreaded, "blog not found" message. Doctor D tried to contact her, but got no response.

We hope that Neo is doing well and that much joy awaits her in her new blog-less endeavors. You can go to her twitter page (which is dormant but still there) to wish her luck.

Now AskAnMD requires a new patient blog for the Link List and needs your help!

Doctor D is about to take a Lent sabbatical and wants to leave you guys with some really excellent blogs to read. He is looking for a blog that is less technical (only info about diseases and treatments) and more of a personal experience in illness and healthcare. Take a look at the excellent blogs to the right for guidance.

Doctor D's favorite new patient blog shall take it's rightful place in the Link List space that once belonged to Neo-Conduit.

*This isn't a Big D Award contest, but all the blogs in the Link List will automatically qualify for the patient-blogger Big D Awards coming up in April or May!

So let Doctor D know your favorite patient blog!

And thanks to all you medical patients out there who have educated Doctor D!

The Big D Awards! (Friday Links)

So last post Doctor D examined the ways The Man is always trying to hold us decent bloggers down. With all the great blogs by medical students and nurses they got no love from The Man over at Medgadget.

With all the thankless hard work med students and nurses do the least we could do is recognize their blogs! So Doctor D decided to stick it to The Man, and declare his own Medblog Awards!

So one lucky Nurse Blogger and Med Student Blogger shall be declared "the most awesomest medblog in existence" and receive the coveted Big D Award:

The Big D Award

The nominees for The Big D in NurseBlogging:

• Call Bells Make Me Nervous
  
• New Nurse Insanity, Fundus Chop!
  
• Life In The ER
• Nurse Me
  
• At Your Cervix
  
• Those Emergency Blues
  
• Weird Nursing Tales
  

The nominees for The Big D in Med Student Blogging:

• Journey To MD
  
• Indifferential Diagnosis
  
• Asystole Is The Most Stable Rhythm
  
• Old MD Girl
• Doc 2 Be
  
• The Life & Times of J. O. Morris
• Med Student 101
• Medically Mind Numbing
• The Dragonfly Initiative

Enjoy discovering the odd worlds of nursing and medical school! Bloggers, rally your readers and send them to vote you to victory!

The winner in each category gets the honor of a Big D Award and a free Supratentorial Mug direct from Doctor D.

Doctor D nominated the good nurse and med student blogs he knows, but the blogsphere is a big place there are probably other frickin' awesome nurse and med student bloggers out there. Nominate your favorite nurse or med student blog that Doctor D missed in the nominees. Shameless self-promotion is allowed! (as long as it isn't spam)

D's favorite new blog will get a link, and the reader who nominated it will also get a Supratentorial Mug!

The winners will be announced next Friday. Have Fun!

Don't Forget Yet! (Friday Links)

In the comments on the last post Old MD Girl rightly pointed out: It is our job to care.

She's right.

Last week's Friday Links was dedicated to the humanitarian response after the earthquake in Haiti. That disaster awakened the sympathy and generosity of the world, but the news cycle moves on. Each day the updates on Port-au-Prince get shorter and shorter until in a week or two you won't hear any more at all. We might just assume everything is better. The fact is that our neighbor Haiti was a humanitarian disaster even before quake. "Port-au-Prince, on a good day, looks semi-destroyed."

It is our job to care, but we often forget.

So for this week's Friday Links I give you: Doctor John Carroll and his wife Maria.

Doctor Carroll is twice the physician I am. He is an ER doctor in Illinois who has been going to Haiti for 15 years and finding children with life threatening congenital heart conditions that he brings to the US for surgery. Johh and Maria have an organization named Haitian Hearts that it appears they run completely by themselves. They have saved thousands of lives. They were in Haiti before the quake and will be there after.

Doctor D once met John Carroll, long ago when D was a college student. John Carroll sat down with young D and spoke to him about caring for patients. He was the first doctor that D ever met that he wanted to be like. After meeting John Carroll, D went home and signed up for the MCAT.

Well, I'm a doctor now, but unfortunately I'm still nowhere near the kind of person that John Carroll is.

Finding John's blog Dying in Haiti and Maria's blog Live from Haiti has been a breath of fresh air for Doctor D. Sometimes I forget why I chose this profession. My caring gets worn out and jaded. The Carrolls are a constant reminder of medicine at it's best. The Carrolls' stories of their work and their patients are inspiring. John's bravery and his uncompromising stand for his patients just might be infectious.

Seriously, you should subscribe to these blogs. Don't forget those who are suffering, and for those of us that work in healthcare don't forget why we do this.

John Carroll is a real hero for Doctor D. I might not be an MD if it weren't for him. Do any of you other healthcare worker have heroes like this? I would love to hear about them in the comments.

Compassion in Emergencies (Friday Links)

I realize that Friday isn't until tomorrow, but some links are too urgent to wait:

As you probably know a massive earthquake recently struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The destruction and loss of life was catastrophic. The people are in dire need right now.

What you may not know is that Doctor D decided to become an MD while working in Haiti. As a college student young D volunteered at a hospital in Port-au-Prince. Even though Haitians are some of the poorest people on earth many of them brought me into their homes as a guest and treated me with a kindness I will never forget. Caring for ill Haitians made young D certain that the practice of medicine was the right life for him.

Now many of the homes, buildings, and hospitals in which D was once a guest lie in ruins. Thousands are dead and many survivors are in grave danger from disease and starvation. Doctor D considered going to Haiti to help, but they only currently want doctors and nurses with experience in disaster response.

But what we can all do is give. Many of us are blessed with jobs and resources that give us the ability to share with those in need. Those of us who chose medicine as a career usually did so because of our compassion for our fellow human beings.

Now is a time to put that compassion in action! These are two emergency aid organizations that Doctor D chose to use:

• The Red Cross -Usually the first on the ground with the most experience in responding to disasters.

• World Vision -Does wonderful work getting food, water, and medicine to people in desperate situations. Doctor D chose World Vision because he already sponsors several kids through that organization.
  

I'm sure there are other excellent organizations coming to the aid of Haiti. Give what you are able.

Thank you so much for caring.

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?

Merry Christmas (A Friday Without Links)

Today is Friday, but it is also Christmas—so no Friday Links shall be served today.

I hope today is a day that you link to your family and friends and to the Great Physician whose birth we celebrate today. He can heal what no doctor ever will.

God bless you all and merry Christmas!

Shuffling Links! (Friday Links)

Doctor D wishes you all came to his nifty site for his brilliant answers to your questions, but let's face it, it's Friday and you're here for the links. That's okay. D forgives you! Since this site is where a lot of you come to connect to the medical blogsphere Doctor D is going to be sure the linkage is up to snuff...

So if you will direct your attention to the right of the blog just below the "followers" section you will see the new, improved link lists:

• First of all, Doctor D realized that putting doctor-blogs at the top is probably likely to exacerbate these bloggers god-complexes. Henceforth, the links shall shuffle! Currently Patient Blogs have risen to the top. Nurses and medical students are also above the docs! The shifting lists should always bring something new to the top.

The lists themselves are also evolving:

• Patient Bloggers: I took out a few links that honestly I'm not reading anymore. Six Until Me is a popular diabetes blog, but if you aren't a diabetic it doesn't really have much to say. Ditto with Reality of Anxiety. It's a good blog for what it is, but right now I'm more interested in blogs that explore the experience of being a patient than blogs about a particular disease. You don't need to know anything about bladder diversion to enjoy Neo-Conduit's blog or the diagnosis of unusual illnesses to enjoy Queen of Optimism. Their writings are essentially human not medical stories. I also added a very interesting blog: Coming Out Of The Trees, about a patient overcoming a history of severe abuse—heavy but fascinating.

• Nurse Bloggers: Well with Nurse K's blog gone again I had to cut the link, but she's still there on twitter. So for D's top Nurse Blogger the award goes to MAHA! She is a new nurse fresh out of nursing school who is an very funny articulate blogger. Heck, she deserves the top slot just for this post. Unfortunately Lonely Midwife appears to have gone into unannounced hiatus, so her link is gone, but if she comes back D will return her to her rightful place.

• Medical Student Bloggers: Ella is still D's favorite med student blogger, but a new contender is Indifferential Diagnosis. It seems to be the work of a group of medical students just teetering on the edge of sanity. God bless, those poor suckers sludging through the misery of med school! Doctor D can reasure them it gets better, but while they are somewhat delusional you can enjoy their brilliant posts like this one.

• Doctor Bloggers: D is thinning out this category right now. Doctor Rob is wonderful despite his strange fascination with lamas, but with his blog on a semi-hiatus his link is being retired for the time being. Buckeye Surgeon is a great storyteller, but recently his blog has gotten a bit overly political for D's tastes. The Happy Hospitalist's link is also gone. Doctor D was just tired of reading so very much about so very little, and without Nurse K around to antagonized Happy what is the point? This opens up space for you to discover some of the other great doc bloggers over there.

• Resident Bloggers: This category is getting lonely! Agraphia appears to have shut down his blog which is too bad, but understandable. Residency is a trial by fire. Only Doctor Ottematic is left. Anybody know any good resident bloggers D can link to?

• And as an extra bonus Doctor D is adding an Other Fun Stuff section. What's in there? You guessed it: other fun medically-related stuff! Enjoy.

Thanks for coming to this week's Friday Links! I promise fewer links next week.

What do you think? Did D miss a great blog that should be in the lists or delete a blog that should have stayed? Tell him all about it in the comments!

Blogging Fatigue (Friday Links)

Blogging can be an exhausting thing~ Doctor D is pretty familiar with exhaustion these days between doctoring, husbanding, fathering, and blogging.

Don't worry, this isn't one of those hiatus posts. AskAnMD is still going strong, but one of the web's favorite medbloggers Dr. Rob decided to throw in the towel this week. He was always an interesting read and will be much missed. Also D will now never be able to figure out that dudes odd obsession with lamas.

Blogs don't last forever, although there is always the hope Rob's blog will have a resurrection like Nurse K's and Ella the Med Student's have.

Fortunately amazing new bloggers are always appearing:

The new link this week is Medical Moments in 55 words! Word Doc is an internist who tells medical stories in short 55 word posts. The stories are both funny and poignant, and best of all they take less than a minute to read. So go check out Word Doc. Doctor D guarantees you won't be disappointed!

I'm really impressed with the brevity of Word Doc's posts. The shortness doesn't take any power at all from her stories. Should Doctor D try to answer your questions in 55 words for a while?

Psycho-Analysis (Friday Links)

It's Friday and Doctor D has a fun semi-medical blog for your reading pleasure:

The Last Psychiatrist

This very enjoyable blog is the product of an academic psychiatrist. Unlike most MD bloggers he doesn't discuss his patients or his practice much at all. Instead he caustically analyzes cultural phenomena from parenting to medical bullshit, teenagers to television (for all you Don Draper fans).

Despite the long posts and the obtrusive presence of Happiesque ads, Doctor D has been reading Last Psychiatrist most of the night, and this guy never gets dull! He diagnoses nearly everyone with Narcissism and warns about the danger, but never has a self-righteous Jeremiad against selfishness been so much fun! Seriously, this dude ranks 8 of 10 on a blog funscale (with Dr. Grumpy as a 9 and Nurse K as perfect 10)!

A taste of Last Psychiatrist:

Pop culture controls you even if you think you're separate from it. It is everywhere, from the clothes you wear to the language you use to the way you think. It is a viral pandemic that masks infection by pretending to be part of you. There's no cure.

"No way, I'm not getting infected, I'm not exposing myself to all that trash. I'm going to think for myself."

That's the virus talking.

Is the Last Psychiatrist a brilliant modern prophet or perhaps a closet narcissist himself who gets off on critiquing his readers? Doctor D isn't sure yet and isn't sure if he cares. Right now I'm just enjoying the ride.

Take a look at Last Psychiatrist and let me know what you think: Is this blogger a genius or a mad psychiatrist?

The Best of D (Friday Links)

This blog has grown so much recently that Doctor D's big doctor ego deemed we should link to all the fun and informative older posts buried in the archives. So if you will direct your attention to the right side of the screen you will notice AskAnMD's new feature:

Doctor D's Best Answers

Of course, if you've been visiting Doctor D's virtual clinic as long as WarmSocks you've already read it all, but if you are new here you can go check it out for loads of doctor-patient enjoyment.

Yes I realize that it is sort of cheating to count a "best of" page as this week's Friday Links, but D is suffering from an acute case of laziness today. Sorry. I will be back on my game next week.

Patient Eduction (Friday Links)

Doctor D's recent Friday Links have focused on healthcare providers. It is good for patients to hear what doctors and nurses are saying. Conversely it is useful for those of us in medicine to listen to the voices of patients. So today I bring you two patient blogs that Doctor D never misses.

These are patients who write only about one illness: their own.

• ∞ itis: WarmSocks blogs about living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She was the first blogger who found AskAnMD and sent encouraging emails and a link from her site. I was hesitant to feature her on Friday Links because most readers don't have RA and therefore might not be interested, but the more I read of WarmSocks' practical advice, insight, and humor the more I realize that she is useful for just about anyone who is interested in medical care.

• Neo-Conduit: Even some medical people (like Doctor D) don't know much about a Urinary Diversion, but this blogger's courage after years of difficulty in the medical system is to be admired. She has some understandable frustration with medical folks, but her perspective is worth listening to. Her observations about patient suffering and frustrations are a insightful and never angry. She is on Doctor D's "must read" list every day.

For some other great patient blogs check out the "patient bloggers" section on the sidebar. And if you follow Doctor D's Friday Links for the physician perspectives you should definitely go over to Dr. Rob's site and read Top Ten Ways To Annoy Your Doctor.

Doctor D will be back soon to answer your questions and with a special post with Nurse K! Stay Tuned!

ER Nursing Blogs (Friday Linkages)

Doctor D actually works in an Emergency Room, but he only rarely tells fun ER stories. He prefers leaving the wild and crayzee emergency stories to the professionals. Nurses always have the best emergency room stories.

With Nurse K still on blogging hiatus the world is a little less fun, but fortunately Doctor D as a little ER joy to share. He has found two ER nurse blogs that never cease to make him smile:

• Nurse Lee is a newcomer to medblogging who blogs at Life in the ER. Doctor D found her when he came across this post and has been enjoying her ever since. She can be a bit silly, and Doctor D has no idea whats up with the glamor shot with a gasmask profile picture. Perhaps her way of preventing airborne illnesses? You should go check Nurse Lee out.

• Another great ER nurseblogger is Tex over at Weird Nursing Tales. He has been serving up wildness from the ER since 2007.
  

Of course, neither Tex or Lee could ever replace good old Nurse K, but reading them will definitely help scratch that ER story itch until K makes her triumphant return.

You can also hang around here with Doctor D (who isn't nearly as funny) to hear more next week about how silly the 1 to 10 painscale is, and to get your doctoring questions answered.

Are Modern Patients to Blame? (Friday Link)

Doctor D has made his triumphal return from his vacation and is back to working himself to death and blogging.

Today is Friday which means D delivers some exciting links for your weekend reading. Doctor D has an interesting radio piece for you:

National Public Radio did a piece about how educated patients who read about medical care on the internet are costing too much. Doctor D is so relieved! He had been told all along it was doctors who are bankrupting the country. Turns out it's you patients, who all have "medical student syndrome" and think you have every disease you read about. You even made that nice overworked doctor in Virginia cry!

It actually is an interesting use of 8 minutes:

So medical pages like this one are ruining the healthcare system! Too much information and you start demanding tests and treatments you don't need.

Doctor D's theory is that doctor blogs might actually be helpful with this problem. Instead of just giving info on diseases and treatments, medblogs actually give the perspective of healthcare providers. Hopefully patients who read heathcare provider blogs learn not just about diseases and treatments but the mindset of physicians, which includes understanding why over-testing and over-treating is not a wise choice.

Doctor Blogs could save the healthcare system billions! Hopefully the AskAnMD will get a generous government grant to underwrite Doctor D's important work!

So what do you think? Does being an educated, web-savvy patient make you cost the system more? Do you think reading Medblogs make your healthcare cost more or less?

The Instinct To Link (Friday Links)

Since he is on vacation this week, Doctor D hasn't been keeping up with the world of Medblogging, but he does have some links for you:

You can still get your Doctor D fix because he did a Psyche Consult, so you can read his guest-posts over at the Reality of Anxiety Blog!

The first post Stress and The Survival Instinct explains the nature of stress instincts, and the second post on Anxiety Management explains how to take control of the stress instinct.

"For your hunter-gather ancestors violence and danger may have been around every corner, but you do your hunting and gathering at the local grocery with laws in place and police nearby to stop most violence. So why are the safest human beings in history always so stressed?"

Readers of this blog know D loves discussing how instincts that worked well in in the past cause a lot of poof health today from obesity to avoiding exercise. Doctor D hopes that understanding our instincts will lead to healthier living.

What do you think? Do you live better when you understand your body better? Or does understanding that certain instincts like stress instinct and eating instincts are hard wired make them harder to resist?

Doctor D will be returning home late next week after his stress-free vacation and he'll be posting some answers to your questions again soon after.

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!

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Healthcare System (Friday Links)

Only an hour left in Friday but Doctor D still has a link for you!

Healthcare is a weird world. Those of us that work here get used to the absurdity of it all. A great article to remind us of how FUBAR all this is:

What If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care?

It is both funny and sad, because it's true.

So Doctor D's been doing Friday links for a few weeks now. Should Friday Links stay or go? Dr. D reads a lot of crazy medical stuff online. Should he continue sharing it or just stick to answering questions? Let Doctor D know in your comments!

Query for Questions (Friday Links)

First of all, thanks to everyone sending in all the great questions. Doctor D has some really interesting questions to discuss over the next several weeks.

Thus far, all the questions on this blog have been from patients. To understand the view from the patient side of the exam room Doctor D is reading some great patient blogs like Queen of Optimism, ∞-itis, and Neo-Conduit.

But Doctor D thought he would use this Friday Links to suggest a few other types of questions he would love to answer:

Dr. D: “Who spends even more time with doctors than patients and often wonders, 'WTF is wrong with these MDs?'”

Student in back raises hand: “Nurses!”

Dr. D: “Right! Nurses have to take crap from annoying doctors all day long! They must have questions about doctors eating at them! Doctor D would love some questions from nurses. He promises not to ignore their questions like the other MD pricks. Hear that, Nurse K? Let Doctor D have it!”

So Doctor D's first Friday Link is a nursing blog. With Nurse K on hiatus, D had to find a new favorite nurse in the blogsphere. Doctor D is really enjoying The Lonely Midwife. D has a special place in his heart for midwifery since a midwife delivered his kid, Little D. Lonely Midwife just passed her boards so go on over there and congratulate her!

Dr. D: “Okay, next question. Who else has lots of questions they're just dying to ask doctors?”

Students shuffle feet and look at the floor.

Dr. D: “Come on! You know this one!”

Students sheepishly avoid eye contact.

Dr D: “Medical Students! You guys are working yourselves ragged trying to become Doctors. I know you've got some wacky doctoring questions you can't ask your attendings. This is your chance to pimp an attending! Doctor D stands ready to assist weary students walking the long road he has traveled before.”

This leads D to our second Friday Link, a really great med student blog he recommends: Journey to MD... and Beyond. Ella must be a frick'n genius to have time to blog during medical school, but we are all the better off for her excellent insights! Doctor D could have never kept up a great blog like that in med school.

Doctor D still loves questions from patients too! He just thought it would be fun to sprinkle a little variety in the questions.

Remember Doctor D doesn't do diagnosis or treatment over the web. But questions about doctors' brains, doctors' mistakes, doctors' behavior, doctors' lives, etc. are all fair game. So keep the questions rolling in!

You can also send your questions to Doctor D via Twitter.
Doctor D also links to great med-blog posts on his Twitter Feed.

Writes and Responsibilities (Friday Links)

So last week we started a new feature on Ask An MD: Doctor D's Friday Links!

• This week Doctor D will point you to a blogger many of you already know: White Coat. Doctor D was late to the party, just discovering this blog recently. White Coat is an ER doctor and an incredibly eloquent writer. He tells the stories of ER patients so poignantly that even crusty Doctor D is moved. For an example of one of his better posts read A Broken Heart. If Doctor D could clone the perfect medblogger he would combine White Coat's literary skill with Nurse K's comic genius. (If such a super blogger existed, however, Doctor D might just have to quit blogging out of shame at his clumsy prose.)

• This week was also Invisible Illness Week. Lots of bloggers with illnesses posted some excellent posts about living with illness. Good reading for all of us in healthcare! One that particular stood out in Doctor D's mind was a post by Kerri at Six Until Me. Type I Diabetes is a particularly difficult invisible disease. Doctor D can think of no other condition in which patients are required to work harder to manage their own disease. Kerri video blogs herself during an hypoglycemic episode, a courageous move for those who know how miserable hypoglycemia can be.

• Over at the typically subdued Kevin MD there was very controversial post: Patient's Bill of Responsibilities. It was posted by an MD who sounds like she has been hurt and disappointed by a lot of patients. She asks the world of her patients. Doctor D could never demand his patients be like that. But an interesting question comes to mind: What should doctors reasonably expect from their patients? A lot of intelligent patients and docs read this blog. Doctor D would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

• Lastly, Doctor D wants to thank Dr. Grumpy again for his brilliant and witty consult this week!

Doctor D be back to answer more questions soon.

Should I Have My PSA Checked? (Friday Links)

Okay so no one sent in this question, but a lot of people have asked Doctor D over the years.

Doctor D is using this question to introduce a new feature of "Ask An MD" Friday Links! There are a lot of great medical blogs by patients, doctors, nurses, and med students , so each Friday Doctor D is going to share some interesting reading from the medical blogsphere with you. I'm still answering a couple reader questions each week so keep emailing them in.

Should I have my PSA checked?

Tricky question! Unfortunately the answer isn't as simple as "Yes" or "No" and there are a lot complicated issues in healthcare tied into the controversy surrounding this simple blood test.

Doctor D wouldn't be brave enough to tackle that question, but Doctor Rob (at Musings Of A Distractable Mind) wrote a fascinating piece on the business of prostate care. The debate in the comments is where it really gets interesting.

Read it Here: An Intuitive Reasoning For Rising Health Care Costs

On a side note: It is a sad day for the medical blogsphere. Nurse K has temporarily closed her blog. She says this is a temporary hiatus. Hopefully she will be back soon, but you can still get a taste of her thoughts on Twitter. Nurse K is the funniest, toughest, most wise-ass ER Nurse on the planet and her blog was always a joy to read. I'm sure the Happy Hospitalist will cry himself to sleep every night until Nurse K is back.

Did you read (or write) a great medical blogging this week? Post the links in the comments!