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.
Boyd K & McCarty DE. What’s in a Name? OR: What Should Orthodontics Be Called, Anyway?. Published online 28 March 2026. NB: a modified version of this essay was originally published online in SLEEP REVIEW magazine 26 February 2026.
McCarty DE & Stothard E. The Tyranny of Structurelessness in the Exam Room. OR: Why Narrative Medicine Still Needs a Spine. Published online 22 April 2026.
McCarty DE. An Empowered Response to the AASM Guideline on Combination Therapy for Insomnia. OR: It’s Not a Label; It’s a Process! Published online 10 May 2026.
McCarty DE. (this is what EMPOWERED medicine looks like) OR: How NARRATIVE-Based Medicine at Rebis Helps Clinicians Survive the Data Avalanche. Published online 18 May 2028.
McCarty DE. An Open Letter to United Healthcare: On Medical Ethics, Corporate Power, and the Human Cost of Fragmented Care. Published online 26 May 2026.
McCarty DE. The Trip Nobody Wanted. OR: “The Abilene Paradox,” Sleep Apnea, and The Five Reasons to Treat as a Safeguard Against Passive Coercion. Published online 24 June 2026.
McCarty DE. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE (and counterproductive!) OR: How The Buddha might think about The Five Finger Approach—and how that helps us hunt for the forces that stand between a patient and sleep! Published online 2 September 2026.
McCarty DE. Happy Empowerment Day! OR: A Sunday Brunch Toast to Four Years After The BIG RED BUTTON. Published online 6 September 2026.
McCarty DE. INSTANT SLEEP APNEA: Just Add Complexity! Published online 12 September 2026.
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SCROLL BELOW TO ENCOUNTER MOST RECENT POSTS, SCROLLING EVEN LOWER TO GO BACK IN TIME…
New Friends
When it rains, it pours, the saying goes. Also this: sometimes, it rains so much that it feels like it will drain the landscape out from under you.
The New Idea
In the world of SLEEP, if there’s one specialty that gets it, it’s myofunctional therapy.
Oh, but as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Truth in Advertising
Here’s a pro tip: if you want to suck the life out of everything that you do, try telling yourself that you’re going to make it perfect.
Apple Tree Moment
Small, fulcrum moments like these, however, can trigger seismic changes. A life can be reborn. A soul can connect with meaning.
Claudio, in Love
In the three decades I’ve been drawing Claudio Mahoney, to my astonishment, he has never fallen in Love. He’s been on dates, he’s been dismissed, he’s been forgotten. But never in Love.
Poor devil.
The Story of How I Didn’t Write an Essay About America on Independence Day, and Wrote A Parable, Instead
…I’m not going to talk about America, during this Independence Day blog post. Instead, I’m inclined to talk about something much more basic. Something we Americans legendarily embrace.
I woke up thinking about a funny little trait called Wisdom.
The Story of How “Gentlemen! This is No Humbug.” Didn’t Actually Happen
That was enough to send the students into a jeering frenzy: “Humbug! Humbug!” an event which would eventually lead Wells to a colorful doom involving acid, prostitutes, and a shaving kit. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Story About When D’Aria Embarrassed Her Doctors and Helped Invent The Five Finger Approach
It was as if we’d sewed up an operative patient with a few sponges and the scalpel still inside.
It was a damned embarrassment.
Smiling Lessons
For today’s post, I was going to write a longwinded, yet witty meditation on the zillions of stories all around us, and how sometimes we can only see the dark ones, and the law of attraction, and yada yada.
Then I decided to draw a cartoon.
The Story of Dr. Matthew Walker and The Fear of Sleeping Pills
I want to discuss a single sentence in Dr. Walker’s book, the sentence that launched a thousand panicked phone calls. The sentence is this one:
“…it is equally possible that sleeping pills do cause death and cancer.”
The Story of My Friend Doug, and The Problem of Time
This thought blew the top of my head off, flipping it into a triple-summersault, landing thickly back in place at a slightly skewed angle, accompanied by an unhealthy-sounding PLOP!
Thoughts on Being Patient-Centered
Some of the biggest brains in the business are working on this issue. They’ve tuned into the signal that the secret to success lies in a trusting alliance between provider and patient.
A Brief Word About The Cartoons and Creative Process
As I reflected on the journey that my patients traveled, with me as their guide, through this crazy place called Sleep Apnea, it struck me that there was no one better-suited to help tell this story.