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The Miracle (part 2): a woman’s story in 2 parts
“Emily.” It was the doctor’s voice, and he was leading her into a seat in his office as if she were an old lady. “Emily, it’s good to see you again…” his voice trailed off as he inspected her. “But you were supposed to have come back to see me a month or so ago,…
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The Miracle (part 1): A woman’s story in 2 parts
It was still there, no doubt about it. She patted her stomach warily, as if she were afraid it would go away with too critical an examination. But it was real -or as real as any present could be inside a box- hidden away, untouchable: Schrödinger’s cat… Some things required faith; not everything in life…
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On Remembering Faces
Faces are important; they are like little signs we wear to allow others to recognize us. Unlike, say, fish they are distinctive and carry verbal labels further enabling meaningful categorization. A face without a name begs inquiry; a name without a face, recollection or even retrospection… In a way, remembering faces is a sign of respect: you have had dealings…
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The Awe of BRCA
Awe: the word has been pasteurized, connotized almost beyond recognition. But I suppose that’s what happens to all really powerful words. There’s a life-span to language; a generation if you’re lucky; a year if social media gets hold of it –likes it… But I think the ship of awe and all of its elegance went down quickly -even before…
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Questions and Answers in Medicine
Questions, questions, questions… They are the scaffolding that surrounds any medical encounter. One could almost phrase it semi-mathematically: patient/doctor = question/answer. And the success of the relationship -at least at the start- is largely dependent on the answer part of the equation. Patients usually come armed with both a problem and questions about it. That…
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The Feminine Perspective?
“Men and women think differently, doctor,” a patient said to me recently, shaking her head in response to some requested advice from me. “You of all people should know that.” It was stated with a look of smug authority, as if to disagree would have been tantamount to an admission of professional incompetence. And while…
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Health Care Provisos
I think one’s occupation tends to encourage a tightly focussed view of only one lane on the road, and a trust that it and it alone will lead to the intended destination. In my hitherto tunnelled vision, it had always been the Medical Model that dominated -to the exclusion of any rival Magisterium. But as time matures, I have…
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The Medical Illustrator
I am an illustrator, a drawer of pictures, if not by aptitude, then by necessity. Many of the concepts I am required to explain beg for diagrams, for pictures, for some sort of visual representation. It is amazing, for example, how many people do not know what a uterus looks like, what’s attached to it,…
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Mother-Baby Units in Prisons
Mothers keeping their babies while in prison -a great idea? I have to admit that I hadn’t thought much about it until the Media publicized a case being considered by the British Columbia Supreme Court. A mother-baby program was cancelled at a regional institute in 2008 and the contention is that this not only violated an…
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Patient Ethics.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about ethics; I’m not sure why, although I suppose it’s a common attribute of age: a way, perhaps, of appraising one’s own affect on the world. I’ve written before about the usual constituents of an ethical assessment: Respect of Autonomy -respect, in other words, for a different opinion; Justice -or…
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