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Medical Revisionism
Words -that’s all they are: sounds that by their very presence magically communicate meaning. They are more than mere noise or background. They are not the wind rustling through the leaves, nor the sounds of a frog in a pond; in a way, they are entities that resolve uncertainty, and in as much as they…
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The Art of Medicine
‘The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls’, as Picasso said. I suppose he was on to something there, but I rather fancy Francis Bacon’s take on it: ‘The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery’. The reproductions that hang on the walls of my office…
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Miasmatics
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. This may be how we choose to think about ourselves as we screw our courage to the sticking place. And yet, much as we hate to admit it, there is…
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Food for Thought
There’s something encouraging about the fact that we are not simply our genes. We’ve moved on -evolved, I guess. They are still the recipes, the instructions, but as every chef knows, you don’t always have to include all of the ingredients to get a good result. Genes are perhaps more akin to a first draft…
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Representative Gynaecology
I have a confession to make. Nothing salacious. Nothing morally or even ethically repugnant. Nothing, perhaps, even interesting, but it needs airing nevertheless. Like a clothesline full of underwear, it may seem embarrassing at first –shocking, even- but boring if it is watched too long. I am not talking Wikileaks here; heads will not roll,…
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The Uber-obvious in Medicine
I don’t know what atavistic urges compel me to rail against reporting the obvious as if it were something new -something clever. Reporting something as if the rest of us would do well to take note of it and spread the revelation to the uninformed like evangelists. Of course I don’t mean to confuse the…
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The Mistaken Identity
Communication is a fascinating thing. It enables descriptions of the world in different sounds, different gestures, different expressions. A shrug of indifference in one culture is a greeting in another. A nod can convey a myriad of intentions -context is everything. Only the smile seems a common currency. As a gynaecologist, I am ruled by…
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The Gyne Weed
I think most of us have a rather Schadenfreude relationship with weeds: on the one hand, they are undesirables, illegal aliens usurping land otherwise dedicated to something useful; but on the other, some of them are quite pretty -even beautiful. Especially in someone else’s garden. Of course it’s all a matter of context, isn’t it? It’s a…
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