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Kristie Lin, MD | Eye Surgeon

@drkristielin

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Helping doctors find joy in medicine ❤️
Compassionate care + hard patient conversations
Johns Hopkins MD • Harvard Retina
📩 [email protected]

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Oftentimes, patients don’t just want acknowledgment that they’re upset — they want to feel understood. 💞
Patients want engagement and connection. 🫂🔗🤝

I’ve been in practice for almost 20 years and here are some phrases I use to hold space for my patients and meet them where they’re at so they feel safe, seen, and heard. 🫶❤️‍🩹

✨”That sounds heavy and I’m here for you.”
✨ “I know this hasn’t been easy. Let’s work through this together.”
✨“Thank you for telling me how you’re feeling. It helps me take better care of you.”
✨”Your feelings matter, and I want to understand more.”

Follow along to lead with more compassion and empathy. ❤️🩺

ib@kellytakesmedicine #compassionatecare #patientconnection #healingwithheart #doctorlife #medicinewithmeaning by @drkristielin

Are you ready to lock in and be the doctor your patients need?

The doctor your patients need is on the other side of the burnout you keep pushing through.

Drop a 🩺 below if you needed to hear this today. And follow along for more of what nobody is saying out loud in medicine. ❤️ by @drkristielin

What we see on social media is NOT the case for 99% of doctors, and nobody posts the messy parts.

Nobody posts the messy desk, the skipped bathroom break, the Google search when your brain just needs a second opinion. Nobody posts the sick day you dragged yourself in for, the bad outcome you beat yourself up over or the imposter feeling that showed up even with over a decade of training. And don’t forget the rushing around and speed walking!

But here’s what I know after almost 20 years of practicing medicine. Every single physician you admire has felt everything on this list. The ones who look the most put together are usually the ones carrying the most.

Being a doctor is hard. You’re not behind, you’re normal!

You are just a real doctor doing a real job and that is never as perfect or confident as it looks on anyone’s feed.

Save this for the next time you feel like you’re the only one struggling.
You’ve got this! 💪 by @drkristielin

Just a little reminder that you can do AND be both. (and you don’t have to apologize for either one!) 🫶

❤️ Follow for more reminders to live life on YOUR terms.

#womeninmedicine #doctor #doctormom #physicianburnout #womenphysicians by @drkristielin

What if you’ve been chasing the wrong definition of success?

Maybe success isn’t about achieving more.

Maybe it’s about loving the life you’ve already built. I challenge you to rethink your definition of success. ❤️

✨Share this with someone who’s achieved everything but forgotten to enjoy it.

#success #womeninmedicine #highachievingwomen #physicianwellness #doctor by @drkristielin

I’ve found that people are more afraid of going blind than of dying…🥺

Here’s a few phrases I’ve learned that help patients feel seen, heard, and less alone when given a potentially vision threatening diagnosis or treatment.

❤️ Follow for more ways to make medicine feel human again.

#retinasurgeon #compassionatecare #bedsidemanner #doctor #womeninmedicine by @drkristielin

1️⃣ You can have a live worm crawling underneath your retina.
Yep. It’s called DUSN, and we use a laser to kill the live worm!

2️⃣ Cancer can grow inside your eye and not even know it.
Some eye tumors can grow without causing pain or noticeable vision changes.

3️⃣ Your thyroid can make your eyes look like Cookie Monster.
Thyroid eye disease can cause your eyes to bulge and go in opposite directions.

4️⃣ STDs can show up in your eyes before you know you’re infected.
Syphilis can cause inflammation inside your eyes, sometimes as the first recognized sign of infection.

5️⃣ Your eye can fill with blood like snow inside a snow globe.
It’s called a vitreous hemorrhage, and it can suddenly make your vision cloudy or dark.

6️⃣ Your cat’s litter box can expose you to a parasite that damages your vision.
A parasite called Toxoplasma can infect your retina and cause permanent scarring. Infection happens when you accidentally eat the contaminated litter.

7️⃣ Diabetes can suddenly make your eyelid droop and give you double vision.
Diabetes can affect the blood supply to the nerves controlling your eye movements, sometimes causing a 3rd nerve palsy.

8️⃣ The more nearsighted you are, the higher your risk of retinal detachment.
Nearsighted eyes are often longer, which increases the risk of retinal tears and detachment.

👀 Send this to someone who won’t believe you.

👁️ Follow for more eye facts that sound made up but are actually true!

IB@drelisekramer

#didyouknow #medicalfacts #eyefacts #humanbodyfacts #eyesurgeon by @drkristielin

❤️‍🩹😅

#womeninmedicine #physicianlife #peoplepleasing #physicianburnout #womenphysicians by @drkristielin

1️⃣ Showering or swimming in your contacts Tap water and pool water carry an amoeba that can feed on the cornea. It’s agonizing to treat, and can cause painful blindness.

2️⃣ Using Visine for redness It causes rebound redness and you end up redder than when you started, making you “addicted” and buying another bottle.

3️⃣ Buying blue light glasses The largest review to date found no effect on eye strain or sleep. What tires your eyes is the number of hours, and no lens fixes that.

4️⃣ Rubbing your eyes Years of pressure slowly reshapes the cornea, and you are grinding whatever is on your hands into it. You’re probably doing it right now. 😳

5️⃣ Sleeping in your contacts Increases your risk of a corneal ulcer 6-8X and can cause painful blindness.

6️⃣ Stretching a bungee cord or resistance band toward your face Anything you stretch and anchor can slip, and it comes back at head height. It’s one of the fastest ways I have seen someone rupture an eye.

7️⃣ Letting your kid play with a high powered laser pointer 0.5 secs across the back of the eye leaves a permanent blind spot. It’s almost always a teenager who bought one online, and there is nothing to reverse it.

8️⃣ Doing yard work without safety glasses The serious eye injuries I operate on happen on the weekend, after someone was mowing their lawn or using a weed whacker.

9️⃣ Smoking It multiplies your risk of macular degeneration. It’s the single biggest thing you can change about whether you lose your central vision to it.

🔟 Putting off your dilated exam because you see fine
Your good eye quietly covers for the bad one. By the time you notice, you have usually lost more than you think.

Which of these do you catch yourself doing? Be honest 🤔

Send this to the person who sleeps in their contacts. Save it for the next time you reach for the Visine 👁️

#eyehealth #eyecaretips #ophthalmologist #eyehealthtips #retinasurgeon by @drkristielin

My brain has a medical degree. The rest of me is winging it. 🙃

If you’re new here, Hi! I’m Dr. Kristie Lin. I’ve spent 20 years performing delicate eye surgery while remaining spectacularly useless about almost everything else.

Around here, we talk about the messy, human side of medicine. Compassionate care, difficult patient conversations, finding joy in medicine again, and surviving the absurdity of being a doctor.

Being a great doctor shouldn’t mean losing yourself in the process.

Follow along. I think you’ll like it here. ❤️

#doctorhumor #physicianlife #surgeonlife #adhdbrain #womeninmedicine by @drkristielin

Thriving. Allegedly. 🙃

#doctorhumor #physicianlife #workingmomlife #peoplepleaser #eldestdaughter by @drkristielin

Compassion and boundaries can exist together.

You can be a caring doctor, a supportive colleague, and a compassionate leader without feeling responsible for everyone’s needs and happiness but your own.

You can be the good daughter AND the good doctor without sacrificing yourself. ❤️

#eldestdaughter #peoplepleasing #womeninmedicine #physicianburnout
#compassionatecare by @drkristielin