May 17, 2014

no dialysis, end of life, palliative care

in case i don’t see you again

May 17, 2014

no dialysis, end of life, palliative care

In case I don’t get to see you again… I knew only bits about Mr. G. The bits that don’t really matter. I knew what medications he had been prescribed. I knew his blood pressure. I knew his weight. But I knew nothing about the bits that mattered.

Vanessa Grubbs

May 11, 2014

my family

mama's rose

Vanessa Grubbs

May 11, 2014

my family

When I was a girl, I went to church with my mother every Mother's Day. Before we left the house, she would pin a white rose on her heart-side lapel in remembrance of her mother who died tragically more than a decade before I was born, and a red one on my dress where the left lapel would be.

Vanessa Grubbs

May 3, 2014

dialysis, no dialysis

joke's on us

Vanessa Grubbs

May 3, 2014

dialysis, no dialysis

He looked so good, I stopped at the open exam room door and turned back to the fellow and asked, “Is the patient in the bathroom?” “No, that’s him sitting there,” he said.

Vanessa Grubbs

April 26, 2014

kidney transplant, race and medicine

partial picture

Vanessa Grubbs

April 26, 2014

kidney transplant, race and medicine

It is a Wednesday morning and I’ve made my usual trek to UCSF for our weekly Renal Grand Rounds. A drive to the BART train station. From BART to MUNI where I pick up the N-Judah bus, which drops me off in front of the medical center about 45 minutes after I’ve left my home.