Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Marginal Notes: Eye of the Beholder

 

"Peepers" copyright©2008 by Emily B. Maurer

 

“Luisa said that if we ever get over to the Ukraine, we can stay at her house for free," my wife told me.

 

A puzzled look settled on my face.  "Who is Luisa?" I asked.

 

"Luisa — Florence's live-in companion. She came to America to look for work and ended up taking a job as an au pair. When that fell through, she started working for Florence."

 

"How is Florence getting along these days?" I asked. Florence lived in the small clapboard cape at the end of our street. >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Marginal Notes: A New England Morning

Here in New England the morning breaks cool under a cloud speckled sky.  A slight breeze stirs the leaves on the wisteria that has wrapped its runners around the balustrade and posts on the porch.

On one of the bare branches of an old maple across the street five blackbirds perch, occasionally jostling one another, like patrons shifting on stools at a lunch counter. >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

Splendor in the Grass

speechless before

    summer's green leaves and grass

in blazing sunlight   (after basho)

 

"Splendour in the grass" is from Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations for Immortality which Mike Lacombe recalled for us.

Illness Narratives

It has been said that to talk of diseases is an Arabian Nights Experience. (William Osler)

Pathographies are narratives which give voice and face to the illness experience. They put a person behind the disease and as such are a great learning opportunity for all care givers and fellow sufferers. The Pathography Blog is a repository for these stories. Please send us your favorites.

Marginal Notes: The Shark and the Doe

 

Photograph by Brian J. Skerry

 

As I drove along the highway en route to the gym for my morning workout, I thought about the last e-mail message I had read before retiring the previous night:  a former runner and high school classmate, “The Shark,” now dead at 55 from injuries sustained in a freak motorcycle accident over the July 4^th holiday weekend.  A vehicle pulled out in front of him as he tooled down a local highway.  The driver didn’t see the oncoming bike until it was too late.

 

Shortly after I crossed the bridge heading north I noticed a slight movement in the shadows beneath the trees.  >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."

 

Borges' Dream

This appeared in the June 6, 2009 New Yorker, Pg. 82

Bill Moyers on Health Care Reform

Thank you to Charles Katz of Berkshire County, Massachusetts for alerting us to Bill Moyer's recent investigation about U.S. health care.

This program was aired on July 10, 2009.  It can be accessed in various parts:

1. Health Care Reform.  Moyers looks at the influence of money and lobbying on health care reform efforts in Washington, D.C.

2. Interview with Wendell Potter.  With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry,  Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.

There are videos and transcripts here.  Much of it we all know, especially those of us who are "providers."  But, like Michael Moore's "Sicko," we have to hear it over and over again.

MedFlix

MedFlix is a humane medicine and film blog which is intended to foster patient-centered care for premedical students, medical students, trainees, physicians, other care givers, patients and their families. We gratefully accept additions to this database from our readers.

Poems From a Nascent Healer

     Sherry Tang, a recent college graduate, will matriculate in medical school in the Fall.  Her poems "The Darkening World" and "Table Six" are well worth reading.  We know she would appreciate your comments.  Email Sherry

Download Darkeningworld

Download Table 6

     Ms. Tang writes: "My inspiration for writing 'The Darkening World' comes from Sean O’Riordan’s class, "Principles and Care of the Dying." As our medical field becomes more mechanical, the patients are the ones to suffer. In this fictitious hospital, medical procedures are quick, painless, and streamlined. Instead of healing the patient, this strive for perfection attempts to quench the human soul.  Download Darkeningworld
     I wrote 'Table 6' while taking Larry Zaroff’s class, Becoming a Doctor. Told from a cadaver’s point of view, this poem is both humorous and also a reminder that we must respect the people who donate their bodies to medicine.  Download Table 6

Sherry Tang graduated from Stanford University in 2009 and is attending Saint Louis School of Medicine this fall. She dreams of becoming a doctor who not only cures, but heals her patients by empathizing with them. Her favorite quotation was said by William Osler, “Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person has the disease.” In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, classical music, reading, training for half-marathons, and taking care of her two chickens.  Email SherryTatStanford.edu.

Marginal Notes: Lord of the Rings

 

Photo copyright© by Brian T. Maurer

 

I ran into Loering down at the post office.  His tall thin frame hovered over the long table by the window as he sorted through the stack of envelopes freshly extracted from his post office box.

 

“They’re taking down the big ash tree on Maple Street,” I told him.

 

“I saw them working on it this morning when I walked down for the mail,” Loering said.  “That’s the last one to go.”

 

“Last one?”

 

“The last of the original trees on that street.  Over the years I’ve watched them all come down, one by one...”

 

Loering's cloudy blue eyes danced in the late morning sunlight that streamed in through the front window.  >>more

 

Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years.  His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."