I have been a little preoccupied since my last post. Blogging has taken a back seat to living, for which I do not apologize. My two dolls and I have had a great run these past 4 years, and some of my passions (bike racing, golf, flying??!!) have given way to parenting. Oh, and guitars. And bikes minus the racing part (we'll see how long that retirement lasts!).
One passion that has never flagged is my professional curiosity. I am an ENT doctor, and after practicing for 21 years in the same smallish town in central Minnesota, I continue to be fascinated and motivated by my patients' maladies. I recently attended a small hands-on 4 day course in endoscopic and microscopic ear surgery (yes, cadavers were involved!), and I returned yesterday full of ideas, information, and motivation to help my patients with ear problems.
I have collected a lot of information (and not a little misinformation) on all things otorhinolaryngological, and have decided to start jotting a few things down for the benefit of patients, friends, and interested parties. Patient confidentiality prohibits me from posting any specific cases or specific information from my practice, but there's still lots of general info that will be of interest. I may also comment from time to time on ENT related news items already public on news media outlets, such as Adele's throat surgery.
I also apologize in advance that I won't be able to address specific comments to these blogs, tweets, or posts. I can't give anyone specific medical advice without seeing you--though I would love to see you at our clinic! I will use some of the comments, questions, and flames to address ENT issues that would be worthwhile discussing.
Just a few other housekeeping items: first, caveat emptor: I am a scientist, empiricist, surgeon, and allopathic physician. I know, or have available to me almost everything that has been published in western medicine. If you want mostly scientific, evidence-based medical advice, I'm your man. If you want advice on alternative medicine, homeopathy, chiropractic, eastern mysticism, or essential oils, I only have an opinion, like everyone else.
Next, I tend to ramble a bit, and have been accused of stream-of-consciousness writing, so if I get off on a bunny trail about the merits of chemical labyrinthectomy versus endolymphatic sac decompression for recalcitrant Ménière's disease, please forgive me. Did I mention that this constitutes the fundamental professional passion of my life? Yeah, and I'm fairly passionate about my passions.
Finally, you can breathlessly await my next post (or not), either way I will usually announce it on my twitter account @docsadvice if you care to follow along. I also tweet the usual pithy or ironic wit expected of tweeters, though not nearly as well as some hipsters (but a lot better than some pro athletes). You can always check out some of the patient information available on our clinic website or at the AAO/HNS website (I won't bore you with the details of that acronym).
Next post, I plan to talk a little bit about chronic sinusitis, since it is getting to be that season in Minnesota and elsewhere. Meanwhile, if you are really bored, feel free to read my old posts on bike racing and adoption and bunny-trailing on this blog, and travels to France and philosophical musings and bunny-trailing on Mon Avis.
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