Welcome to Dave’s Notes
Dave’s Notes is a long-running, evolving notebook of essays, cartoons, stories, and hard-won wisdom—written at the intersection of medicine, humanity, complexity, and care. Some pieces are short reflections, others are deep dives, many are illustrated with super-RAD cartoons (!), and all are part of an ongoing conversation about how we think, listen, and help one another better.
Below, you’ll find the essays indexed by year—an invitation to browse, wander, and choose what speaks to you. You can also scroll further down the page to engage with the most recent posts, where the conversation continues in real time.
This isn’t your average blog...it’s a platform for discovery, and a place where EMPOWERMENT is always part of the answer! Enjoy!
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2022
McCarty, DE. A Brief Word About the Cartoons and Creative Process.[excerpt from “The Beautiful Blue Book”] Published online 6/9/22
McCarty, DE. Thoughts on Being Patient-Centered. Published online 6/10/22
McCarty, DE. The Story of My Friend Doug and the Problem of Time. Published online 6/14/22
McCarty, DE. The Story of Dr. Matthew Walker and the Fear of Sleeping Pills. Published online 6/15/22
McCarty, DE. The Story About When D’Aria Embarrassed Her Doctors and Helped Invent The Five Finger Approach. Published online 6/20/22
McCarty, DE. The Story of How “Gentlemen! This is No Humbug.” Didn’t Actually Happen. Published online 6/22/22
McCarty, DE. The Story of How I Didn’t Write an Essay About America on Independence Day, and Wrote a Parable, Instead. Published online 7/4/22
McCarty, DE. Truth in Advertising. Published online 9/1/22
McCarty, DE. The New Idea. Published online 9/19/22 [note: an edited version of this essay was published in CRANIO]
McCarty, DE. New Friends. Published online 9/24/22
McCarty, DE. The Makeover. Published online 10/30/22
McCarty, DE. Learning to Look. Published online 11/6/22
McCarty, DE. Where’s Your Hut? Published online 11/11/22
McCarty, DE. There is No OSFA. OR: The Story About How Abandonment Trauma Hurts All Of Us, and How EMPOWERMENT is Our Salvation. Published online 11/17/22
McCarty, DE. Sometimes, You’re the One. OR: The Story About How The Five Finger Approach Found a Problem That Had Never Been Described and How it Changed Wendy’s Life. Published online 11/18/22
McCarty, DE. Cartoons, Sarcasm, and IRE!...Oh, My! Published online 11/28/22
McCarty, DE. Shoveling Snow at the End of the Year. Published online 12/24/22
2023
McCarty, DE. Silent Movie: What We Don’t Hear is Hurting All of Us. OR: How Efficiency Erases Humanity. Published online 1/10/23
McCarty, DE. Happy 57th Birthday to the Beast Known as Sleep Apnea. OR: The Monster Has Left the Building. WHAT DO WE DO? Published online 2/12/23
McCarty, DE. Rocket Fuel. OR: The Siloes of Sleep Medicine, the Semmelweiss Effect, and the Blue Balloon Solution. Published online 2/23/23 [this essay was adapted to audio for Empowered Sleep Apnea: THE PODCAST in Season 2, Episode 1: PROLOGUE]
McCarty, DE. An Open Letter to Providers. OR: What I Learned From Crows. OR: Project: Real Collaboration. Published online 3/2/23 [this essay was adapted to audio for Empowered Sleep Apnea: THE PODCAST in Season 2, Episode 5: THE ONE ABOUT CROWS]
McCarty DE. The Next Level of Patient Care is Navigating the System Itself. Published online 4/25/23
McCarty DE. Complexity Invites Collaboration. OR: The Story about how the Empowered Sleep Apnea project gets a Rock-N-Roll birthday. Published online 8/10/23 .
2024
McCarty DE. “AHA!” Or: The Story About How The Monkey On My Back Made Me Jump Into a Rabbit Hole. Published online 2/28/24.
McCarty DE. Point Your Feet Downstream and Smile! Published online 12/8/24.
2025
McCarty DE. Pressure Toxicity: When the Cure Becomes the Complication. Published online 5/15/25.
McCarty DE.”IT’S NOT A TEXTBOOK!” Reframing Empowered Sleep Apnea as a Complexity Management Tool. Published online 5/18/25.
McCarty DE. Navigating the COMPLEX in Sleep Apnea: From “Balloons and Mountains and Crows” to EMPOWERMENT. Published online 5/19/25
McCarty DE. REBIS RISING! A New Compass for Sleep Medicine in the Age of Complexity. Published online 5/20/25.
McCarty DE. When “Normal” isn’t NORMAL: The Trauma of Dismissal. Published online 5/21/25.
McCarty DE. MEMORIAL DAY: What I’m Still Fighting For. Published online 5/26/25.
McCarty DE. A Simple Question and the Hydra of Diagnosis. Published online 6/1/25.
McCarty DE. Cervical Headgear and the Hidden Harm: An Orthodontic Reckoning Long Overdue. Published online 6/3/25.
McCarty DE. What Counts As Proof? Rethinking ‘Harmlessness’ in Orthodontic Practice. Published online 6/4/25.
Stothard ER. A Call to Evidence: How We Build the Future Together. Published online 6/5/25
McCarty DE. The Future Is Now. OR: How Rebis Gave Form to a Fourteen-Year Old Dream in Sleep Medicine. Published online 6/12/25.
McCarty DE. FLOW. OR: Why a Kitty in a Flood MATTERS on Father’s Day 2025. Published online 6/15/25.
McCarty DE. CPAP Intolerance: It’s Not What You Think! Published online 6/16/25.
McCarty DE. The Tyranny of Labels. OR: Ode to the Nameless Bird. Published online 8/15/25.
McCarty DE. The Five Angels of the Reconstruction. OR: How a Bunch of Non-Doctors Will Save The World of Sleep Medicine as we Know it. Published online 8/20/25
McCarty DE. Unraveling the Gordian Knot of Central Sleep Apnea. OR: An Empowered Response to the 2025 AASM Clinical Practice Guideline on Central Sleep Apnea. Published online 9/11/25
McCarty DE. An Empowered Response: Patient-Centered Sleep Apnea Care in the Age of Teledentistry. OR: “The AASM, The AADSM and The Cheshire Cat walk into a blog…” Published online 8 October 2025
McCarty DE. A Love Letter to Five. OR: “How Do I Love Thee? Let me Count the Ways!” Published online 10/22/25
McCarty DE. What Would Walt Disney Do? Part I—The Fragmentiest Place on Earth ™. Published online 26 October 2025
McCarty DE. What Would Walt Disney Do? Part II—Disneyland 1976, The Team of Teams, and the Reckoning of Medical Ethics. Published online 4 November 2025
McCarty DE. What Would Walt Disney Do? Part III—Welcome to the ISLE. Published online 13 November 2025
Lamberg S, McCarty DE. A Spa Day for Amy—OR: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Brain. Published online 14 November 2025
McCarty DE. The Fear of Sleeping Pills Part II: Melatonin, Heart Failure, and the Subtle Art of Not Panicking. Published online 17 November 2025
McCarty DE. Why is it called ‘Empowered Sleep Apnea’? OR: “How a Doorway Made of Language Itself Can Save Our Field.” Published online 8 December 2025
McCarty DE. To Cover? or Not To Cover?...That is the Question. OR: The Ethics of Defining “Sleep Apnea” in an Age of Coverage, Codes, and Conscience. Published online 29 December 2025
McCarty DE. KPAP: The Writing is on The Wall. OR: How an “Upside Down” Pressure Strategy Might Just Save Us All. Published online 30 December 2025
McCarty DE. Who is Happy E? A New Year’s Note on Enigmas, Fire Horses, Echoes, and the Kind of Knowing that Moves. Published online 31 December 2025
2026
McCarty DE. The Three Stars of Empowerment. Or: Why Shared Consciousness is the Only Way Out of the Fragmentiest Place on Earth. Published online 12 January 2026
McCarty DE. What is Narrative Based Medicine, and Why Might it Save Us All? OR: Why Getting the Diagnosis Right is Sometimes the Wrong Question. Published online 20 January 2026
Boyd K & McCarty DE. When Childhood Traits Become Adult Bodies. OR: ADHD, Breathing, and the Long Arc of Physiology. Published online 26 January 2026
McCarty DE. Good Trouble in the Dental Chair. Or: Reading the AADSM Consensus Through the Language of Empowerment. Published online 31 January 2026
McCarty DE. Six Things that Matter to Me About Central Sleep Apnea Now That I Live In The Moutains: Field Notes From An Elevated Practice. Published online 3 February 2026
McCarty DE & Walter A. The Nose Rules! Especially During Cold and Flu Season. OR: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love our Noses. Published online 5 February 2026
McCarty DE. The Wrong Fight: “Providers”, Professionalism, and the Hollowing of Medicine. OR: An Empowered Response to the ACP Position Statement on What We Call Ourselves. Published online 12 February 2026
McCarty DE. Sleep in the Time of Cannabis PART ONE: CBD CBN and the Crimes of Sleeping Pills OR: A Field Guide to Curiosity, Caution, and Not Losing Our Minds Again. Published online 19 February 2026.
McCarty DE. Snow White was Never Waiting for a Prince. OR: The Forest, The Mirror, and the Iterative Work of Showing Up. Published online 2 March 2026.
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SCROLL BELOW TO ENCOUNTER MOST RECENT POSTS, SCROLLING EVEN LOWER TO GO BACK IN TIME…
Snow White Was Never Waiting for a Prince
But lately I’ve been wondering whether we have been reading it too literally. Perhaps this isn’t a story about a victimized innocent, and a dashing moneyed rescuer? Perhaps this is a story where every character in the storyline is…us?
What if “Snow White” is a story about human integration…and aspirational wholeness?
Sleep in the Time of Cannabis PART ONE: CBD and CBN and the Crimes of Sleeping Pills
There is genuine enthusiasm here—hopeful curiosity, even relief. After years of uneasy relationships with traditional sleeping pills, many people are wondering whether these newer, plant-derived compounds might offer something gentler, you know? Something natural…
The Wrong Fight: “Providers,” Professionalism, and the Hollowing of Medicine
The reaction in medical circles was predictable. Some applauded the statement as long overdue, whilst others dismissed it as a symbolic gesture in a system burdened by far more urgent structural problems. Life-Fans, from my lens, both reactions miss something important…
The Nose Rules!—Especially During Cold & Flu Season!!
This year, cold season brings something different. For us, we’re using cold season as a reminder to talk about something most doctors might never mention…we want to talk about your nose.
SIX THINGS THAT MATTER TO ME ABOUT CENTRAL SLEEP APNEA NOW THAT I LIVE IN THE MOUNTAINS
This essay is not a guideline. It’s not a rebuttal. It’s not an argument for or against any particular machine, medication, or metric. It’s a set of lessons learned after moving into thinner air—observations that only became unavoidable once oxygen tension dropped and humility rose to meet it.
Good Trouble in the Dental Chair
This consensus does several things right—bravely right—in a scientific culture that often rewards certainty over humility. And it is precisely because it does so many things right that it opens the door to a deeper conversation about how we talk about Sleep Apnea, dentistry, and healing itself…
When Childhood Traits Become Adult Bodies
What this paper really describes is not ADHD as a disorder, but neurodevelopmental vulnerability as a life-course condition—one that can slowly shape how a body meets the world over decades…
What Is Narrative-Based Medicine, and Why Might It Save Us All?
Narrative-Based Medicine is not merely a philosophy; it is a practice discipline, and like any discipline that hopes to survive contact with the real world, it requires infrastructure…
THE THREE STARS OF EMPOWERMENT
This is where everything gets uncomfortable, where jargon multiplies, where silos get deep. The short answer? Sleep Apnea is more than you think it is! But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s back up.
Who Is Happy E?!
At first, I thought you were just a logo. A friendly lowercase letter meant to soften a serious subject…but the longer I sit with you, the more you feel less like branding and more like a question that wandered in and decided to stay…
KPAP: THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL
…because for a long time now, many of us have been living with a nagging, half-formed thought we didn’t quite know how to say out loud: What if too much pressure isn’t…um…benign?…
To Cover?…or Not to Cover?…That is the Question
These principles were never meant to live in textbook…they exist precisely for moments like this one…when the system has grown too large, when efficiency incentives multiply, when individual patients risk the harm of being labelled, processed, and left behind when a “one size fits all” solution fails.
I’m writing this essay because Sleep Medicine has reached this moment.
Why Is It Called Empowered Sleep Apnea?
And this is how a field begins to save itself—not through bigger machines or stricter definitions, but through better stories.
The Fear of Sleeping Pills Part II: Melatonin, Heart Failure, and the Subtle Art of Not Panicking
That’s the trouble with self-selection: the groups are different from the beginning…so proving they’re different at the end really shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
A Spa Day for Amy—Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Brain
“Amy G,” I said, “I think it’s time for an intervention.” She looked about ready to dash, but I calmed her, soothing her, holding her hands. … “I think it’s time for a Spa Day—or maybe even THREE…”
What Would Walt Disney Do?--Part III: “Welcome to the ISLE”
The full map. The full storyline. A coherent, ethical foundation for the entire amusement park, supported by every attraction in the park….I’m pretty sure that’s what he would have done.
What Would Walt Disney Do? Part II—Disneyland 1976, the Team of Teams, and the Reckoning of Medical Ethics
My final take? Walt Disney wouldn’t suffer this crap for a heartbeat. Walt Disney would shut the place down for a complete overhaul, from the ground up. Walt Disney’s park, as we’ve heard, would be clean.
What Would Walt Disney Do? Part I—The Fragmentiest Place On Earth (TM)
Launched from Rebis’ shores, our Blue Balloon has taken us to terrain that smells like popcorn and broken dreams, and the carnival music is sometimes drowned out by crying…
A Love Letter to Five
The secret, I’ve learned, is not to resist your motion but to dance with it. To let curiosity mature into coherence. To let exploration spiral back into embodiment. That’s the discipline of Five: to remain curious and connected. To wander without getting lost.
An Empowered Response: Patient-Centered Sleep Apnea Care in the Age of Teledentistry
The problem isn’t malice. It isn’t even incompetence. It is simply this: The system forgets to ask: Where do you want to go?

