Thread by @DoctorTro

Yesterday, I had to come face to face with several COVID patients (yes I had an n95 & limited my contact as much as possible)

I admitted one patient with COVID… an older gentleman who had natural immunity from recovered COVID from a year prior, he had come in with mild viral symptoms… he was much less symptomatic compared to his 1st infection…

but now he was more short of breath. His D-dimer was high and he was COVID+, his CTA of the lungs showed bilateral pulmonary embolism…

This is the, it’s nothing new pandemic

Also not new, I received these two simutanoes comments on social media. One said I was recommending the vaccine too aggressively and the other literally written at the same time said I didn’t recommend it enough.

Around the same time a family member who rarely ever talks to me, replies to me questioning how I care for my patients 🤔

I have been asked to help out inpatient in the hospitals… I have countless patients in my clinic sick every day with SERIOUS medical conditions from cancer, sepsis, COVID, to diabetes and heart disease.

I have devoted 20 years of my life to building knowledge, graduating medical school, finishing residency, chief residency, practicing medicine, publishing research articles, creating support groups and apps all to help people get healthier.

While I understand that random social media trolls will come out and attack me based upon their political or ideological beliefs or maybe just to plain mess with me…

But it’s surprising when distant family/friends who show little interest in your life… they feel it’s appropriate to gaslight, ad-hominem, and just plain make up shit to suit some deranged, shameless politically-aligned narrative, based in all-or-none thinking…

It’s superficial. It’s disingenuous.

I give 100% of myself to my patients. If my patients suffer so do I, emotionally and otherwise. This is something selfish people cannot understand.

I spend on average AT LEAST 3 hours with my patients when they first join my practice. To understand who they are, their values and their goals. I spend time to educate them and listen as best as I can, in a way that’s unseen in modern medical practice (the avg MD visit is 7 min)

While everyone on social media is sitting on their couch at home they may want to feel like they “are doing something”… about this pandemic… the reality is that there are real people ACTUALLY doing something about the pandemic.

So take a second, if you have a doctor or nurse, hospital administrator in your family… THANK THEM.

While you were out drinking, smoking, partying, We were studying, so we could serve our families, friends, community and country.

My entire focus has been on the service I can provide to others. My entire purpose is to educate myself as best as possible to deliver the best possible healthcare.

If in the last two years, if you haven’t seen countless COVID patients, if you haven’t actually contributed to medical science in any way… maybe just maybe, say a thank you to people who do every day.

There are some of us who are acting in complete service and find ourselves having the armchair social media mob criticize you for simultaneously doing something TOO MUCH & TOO LITTLE.

Let’s bring nuance back to medicine, discussions and let’s not forget the people in our lives that are serving others… yes thank your waiter, garbage man, nurse, doctor or physician’s assistant, or office manager (least recognized people IMVHO)

Yesterday, I had to come face to face with countless COVID patients. For two years I’ve dealt with this pandemic in hospital and out while publishing research and volunteering time… What exactly did you do?