By Dr. Jim Ferguson From time to time patients ask me if I do surgery. Of course, what they mean is do I perform minor surgical procedures, since it is obvious I’m no surgeon. I tell them, yes, I can biopsy spots on the skin, lance boils and sew up lacerations. In medical school I […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson In the opening minutes of the movie Saving Private Ryan, an old man is leading his family on a pilgrimage to Normandy and a WW II cemetery. He kneels at the grave marker of the lieutenant (played by Tom Hanks) who led a band of army rangers to save him, the […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson I have always had a sense of wanderlust. And I have been blessed and able to exercise this passion for travel. They say that people’s dogs often look like their masters. My dog Jack is a feist, a terrier breed. He really doesn’t look like me, but perhaps he has my […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson Groucho Marx once quipped, “These are my principles; and if you don’t like these, I have others.” I started thinking about this old joke as I picked up a penny in the Kroger parking lot. My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I like to go to the grocery and she encourages […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson “The world stands out on either side, no wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high…” Edna St. Vincent Millay I think it’s easier to comprehend the vastness of the ocean (and the world) from the deck of […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson If you’ve got an itch, you’ve got to scratch it; but should you? To borrow from the Bard, “To scratch, or not to scratch; that is the question.” Maybe I’m focused on skin lately because my own nose is so red and painful. Recently, my dermatologist prescribed a topical chemotherapy agent […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson I get as frustrated as anyone else when I hear that our government has given some researcher precious resources to study the mating preferences of fruit flies or build robot squirrels; I didn’t make these up. And there are hundreds of even more wasteful programs. For the last three years Senator […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson As I look up at the cloudy February skies and watch the cold drizzle fall, I begin to long for spring. In fact, about the only good thing I can say about February is that it’s short. Perhaps a sign of aging is that you long for southern regions in the […]
By Dr Jim Ferguson As I look up at the cloudy February skies and watch the cold drizzle fall, I begin to long for spring. In fact, about the only good thing I can say about February is that it’s short. Perhaps a sign of aging is that you long for southern regions in the […]
By Dr. Jim Ferguson I’ve become accustomed to writing my Focus essay on Wednesday afternoons after I’ve made hospital rounds and I’ve finish business chores. However, grandbabies change your life. My two girls were fortunate to have my stay-at-home wife, Becky, when they were growing up. There’s nothing better than a mom to watch over […]
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