Blog - Page 2 of 3 - Arthur M. Lauretano, MD, MS, FACS

Resiliency and the New Year

January 11, 2017 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 2 Comments

Resiliency will take us far

Every New Year’s Eve and Day bring to mind the “R” word.

The R-Word. No, Not Resolutions…Resiliency.

No, not “resolution.” That R-word is a hopeful, yet often ill-fated, attempt to lose weight and increase exercise that drives up gym and weight loss clinic memberships and revenues, only to often see a drop off in attendance one to two months later.

The “R” word that comes to my mind is “resilience.” For me, each New Year’s period is a reminder of the resilience we have as people, and as a society.

What is the Santa Claus Myth and Why it Matters

December 28, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 3 Comments

According to a study by Professor Christopher Boyle at the University of Exeter in the U.K., I owe my adult daughter and son a big apology. I have damaged them. I have instilled in them a distrust of me. They are left to question anything I have taught them, and any wisdom I may have tried to pass on to them. You see, when they were little, I told them that Santa Claus was real.

Christmas: Sitting in the ICU, Hoping for Peace on Earth

December 19, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 12 Comments

Sitting in the ICU, one week before Christmas, a word came to me: POIGNANT. The word is defined as “evoking strong emotions,” with some sources more specifically defining it as “evoking strong emotions of sadness.”

It was the former, broader definition that came to mind as I surveyed the twelve rooms in the unit. The patient I was seeing had had an airway reconstruction for sleep apnea. She was struggling to eat because of the changes in her throat, but she was improving and would be home well before Christmas.

This is the Reason a Humbling End-Of-Life Conversation Makes Me Grateful

December 17, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 3 Comments

This was a unique end-of-life scenario, at least in my experience.

Our Thursday morning Head and Neck Cancer Clinic had been busy, as usual. It was a particularly optimistic day, with most of the patients being follow-up patients in remission. The new patients that morning, being evaluated for recently diagnosed cancers, all had very treatable disease.

Our last patient of the day, however, was a wonderful man who had extensive skin cancer that eroded into bone, including the skull bone, and it had recurred in spite of multiple treatment modalities. At this point, this was end-stage, or terminal, cancer.

This is Why Thanksgiving Contributes to Our National Healing

November 17, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 1 Comment

Entering into this season of Thanksgiving, there is much to contemplate. A very tumultuous and divisive election season has been completed, with celebration and disappointment abounding, depending on one’s choice of candidate. Protests in response to the outcome of the election seem like something that we would see on a world news report in reference to a country far from our own, yet these protests are occurring on our own city streets.

This election has raised the specter of a country divided along many lines – political party, race, religion, ancestry and ethnicity, gender and gender identification, and sexual preference – and the list goes on.

These are the Ways Black Lives Matter and White People Care

November 6, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 1 Comment

“Black Lives Matter.” I couldn’t agree more. I am a white, Italian-American, and I totally support “Black Lives Matter.”

Now, of course, so many people hear, “Black Lives Matter” and retort, “All Lives Matter.” I’m a surgeon, so of course all lives matter to me. I know that. I live that everyday. In this World Series time of year, I can remind you that while a 0.350 batting average would be a ballplayer’s dream, a 35 percent success rate at saving lives would be a surgeon’s worst nightmare. So frankly, when someone answers, “All Lives Matter,” I am beyond frustrated – I am outraged.

Down Syndrome: This is the Reason Preconceptions are Unfortunate

October 30, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 3 Comments

The medical record perplexed me. “Unfortunate 33-year-old-man with Down Syndrome here for routine visit for ear wax removal.” This gentleman had just moved to our area and needed a new doctor to take care of his ears. I was meeting him for the first time. He brought in an envelope full of records from his prior ear, nose, and throat doctor. Each visit was documented with an entry that began with, “Unfortunate 33-year-old man with Down Syndrome.” There were not only records printed from an electronic medical record (EMR), in which lines and even paragraphs can be copied and pasted, but also handwritten notes predating the EMR, in the typical doctor’s handwriting that I myself have taken to a new illegible level.

The Prisoner and the Presidential Candidate

October 23, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD Leave a Comment

This was not the typical operating room scene. Yes, I was there, having made the incision to expose the facial fracture that the patient had sustained in a basketball game. I was in the process of fitting the titanium plates to the fractured bones, contouring the plates to bring the cheek fragments into their original position. Sure, my usual OR team was there – my resident, the nursing staff, and the anesthesiologists. Sounds like a usual case.

Is There a Right Time For End-of-Life Planning?

October 16, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 4 Comments

You don’t realize it’s the last breath until the next one never happens. At least, that has been my experience when watching someone die, pass away or, in medical terms, expire.

We typically don’t think about breathing, either our own or that of others. It’s similar to the effect one gets when there is a power failure in the middle of the night–you’re alerted to the power failure by the sudden silence. All those hums and rumbles from refrigerators, furnaces, and humidifiers abruptly shut down, and the silence is audible. This has been my experience when patients take their last breath.

How a Mystery Diagnosis Helped Me Discover an Everyday Miracle Cure

October 8, 2016 by Arthur Lauretano, MD 3 Comments

The fact that his stomach did not work ironically had my stomach in knots. For weeks, I had watched this infant fade away. Although many other doctors were taking care of him, I was intimately involved. His stomach was no better than a flaccid plastic bag, yet prior to this mystery illness, he was healthy for his first four months of life.

Now, not only did his stomach not function, but he was not tolerating the nutritional supplement that was being fed to him through a tube that went through his small nose, and traversed his throat, esophagus, and limp stomach to reach the second part of the intestine. This supplement seemed to be triggering his body to reject nutrition. He poured out diarrhea and became dehydrated — truly failure to thrive.

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