VA Beach Dermatology

06/10/2026

Always Label!!
I was processing specimens one day at the Yale-New Haven pathology lab when I "put up" five specimens in a jar. These were submitted by a surgeon and were from the back of a young lad. All were pedunculated lesions but one stood at as being a pedunculated melanoma. It was dark and ominous looking. Dure enough when the slides came out, the surgeon was dealing with a melanoma. I have no idea whether he was able to figure which of the five was the guilty one.
The moral here is that except for obvious skin tags ( acrochordons) never throw nevi into the same jar. Jars are cheap but human lives are not.

06/06/2026

Sappho

06/02/2026

Early AIDS case

06/01/2026

05/22/2026

Face Saving Trick
Every once and awhile a patient will ask us physicians to do something a bit dishonest. The most common: an illegal request to write a prescription in the name of a relative.
My father taught me a little trick when such a request is made. He would act a bit perplexed by the request; acting like he did not quite grasp what the patient was asking. Then, he would say something like: you're not asking me to do something dishonest are you? My father said that patients nearly always shake their heads and say something like: no, no doc. My father would then nod and say, I didn't think so. I've known you for al long time, and I didn't think you would do such a thing. This action saved face and augmented trust rather than accusation. I did this a few times, but was not nearly as glib as I think my father was.

05/11/2026

Crowd Boos Van Morrison and Bob Dylan

05/10/2026

Ushering at the Charles Playhouse
I was able to take in numerable plays and musicals by ushering at the Charles Theater in Boston. Sometimes I would take a date, never on a first date. Of course, I would not ask the date to usher with me. I know it sounds cheap but my income was zero at the time.
A couple of more interesting experiences are recalled. One was signing up for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Upon showing up to usher for the Saturday matinee, the stage manager informed me that my services were not needed. However, they had closed the balcony and I was welcome to watch the show from there.
Shortly after taking a seat in the empty balcony, a bouncy, breathless blond asked me if she could sit next to me. She was beyond very pretty. She excitedly told me that she had just won the role of Candy in the play I was about to watch.

04/25/2026

When I have a patient with hives. I will write for an Epi Pen. Once I had a patient misunderstand and gave himself both injections. The ER called me and said he was fine but his pulse had gone over 200.

04/23/2026

My father, a general practitioner of impeccable honesty taught me a practice trick that I occasionally used. We physicians, in time, are asked by a patient to do something a bit dishonest. The best example would be to write a prescription intended for them lacking insurance for a relative who possessed insurance.
What my father would do, and I learned to do on occasion but not with my father's skill ( part of my father's personality was to think out his response before replying; I am a bit more impulsive) was to listen to the request and act as if he was trying to grasp its meaning. Then, my father would innocently query, you aren't asking me to do anything dishonest are you: as if he was having trouble grasping the intent of the request. The patient would then shake his head no. The beauty of this technique is that it allows the patient to "save face" as the Japanese would put it.

02/09/2026

Light Bulb Urology