When my father--the smart, strong, mostly silent type--got diagnosed with a brain tumor a few months after his 56th birthday, I figured we'd ended up with the worst Christmas present ever. Instead, he and my infant son taught me the most important Christmas lesson of all.

An inspirational tale originally published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book.

Dr. Valerie Chia strides into St. Joseph's emergency room expecting the usual Montreal Monday morning chaos. Nothing she and the other day doctor can't handle, with the help of the nurses and a little coffee.

Until the other day doctor doesn't show up. And one of the overnight patients crashes. And the shiny new resident doctor, Hope Sze, tries to save the patient’s airway, but just might end up killing the woman instead.

Debut episode (half-hour pilot script) of a medical radio drama featuring Dr. Hope Sze, by Melissa Yi, a.k.a. Melissa Yuan-Innes, the emergency physician and award-winning author.

"Wonderful."--Greg Smith, M.D.
"Valuable."--The Ultimate Reading List for Nurses
Now an audio book on Audible or at Gumroad.

This is the story about a plucky emergency doctor giving birth to two healthy babies—and all the whacked-out stuff that happens in between.

When I read other 'mumoirs', I laugh at the universal truisms: yep, tired. Ooh, a poopy diaper. But look, baby's smile! So worth it. Whoops, I'm pregnant again!

Is that my 20,000-word tale?

I wish.

Yes, I change diapers. Cloth diapers! And my husband changes more than his fair share.

But mostly, I'm an ecstatic new Momzilla carting my infant around as death and disease stalk and smite my family. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to save lives and conceive another baby.

Warning #1: this book is less about official doctor-ing and more about my unbalanced life (but funny! And plucky! Did I mention plucky?).

Warning #2: I wrote it as prose poems because I think poems are an excellent way to distill life into sharp, memorable lines. Also, thanks to babies and medicine, I hardly have my hands to myself, except when I'm sleeping. Poems are short. And I still need to sleep.

Come on in.

A fast, funny guide on how to turn your back around, written by an emergency doctor.

Find relief in this fast, funny book by Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, outlining causes and cures for the dry eyes that afflict up to 1 in 4 Canadians.

Drugs. Alcohol. Violence. Chaos.

All in a night’s work for Dr. Hope Sze, aspiring Montreal emergency physician—until someone tries to strangle her with her own stethoscope.

Then Hope’s lover disappears.

A second woman barely escapes throttling before her beloved vanishes too.

Hope slogs through the pneumonia and hemorrhoid patients cramming the ER while a psychopath stalks the empty, post-midnight hallways of St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Waiting. Waiting patiently.

Until everything explodes.