Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Introducing... ePatients

Patient driven care is an idea whose time has come.  Some years ago, I read an amazing book about patient empowerment, "Making Miracles Happen."  Every day, I see patients who need to be partners with their physicians, but can't conceive of doing that or are not given the opportunity.  This is especially true for the elderly.  Ideally, the patient, not the doctor, should be "captain of the ship."

Yesterday, on TED, I watched an amazing video on ePatients (18 minutes).  Viewing this will empower you or help you to empower a family member or friend.

The ePatient network is growing.

See:     

The Society for Participatory Medicine

Interternational Journal for User Driven Health Care

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

This is just for starters.  There is much  more...

Mind, Body, Breath: The Balanced Life

Thousands of years ago, yoga was developed in India by Hindus as part of an eight-limb discipline to help achieve a balanced life. 

As a certified yoga teacher, I am often asked,  “There are so many yoga classes, is it normal to be confused?”  “Will my religion fit in with yoga”  “I'm not flexible, can I do yoga?”  The one answer to all these questions is, “Yes.”  Consider that the word “yoga” literally means to unite and what we're uniting is our mind, body and breath - no matter what condition our minds, bodies and breath may be in.  Yoga helps develop flexibility and strength.  But perhaps more importantly, it can boost your self-confidence.  So, even if you never touch your toes, you'll be more accepting of yourself.  For more details read:  Download Beaudin Yoga

Author Bio:  Paula Boyajian-Beaudin is certified in Interdisciplinary Yoga and Yoga for the Special Child.  Currently she is part of the palliative care team at St. Mary’s Hospital for Children (Bayside, NY) and The Sunshine Rehab Center and Hospital (Ossining, NY).  She also works with Community Access to the Arts and Berkshire County ARC in Massachusetts.  A more complete bio is on the pdf.  You may contact Paula at paulabeaudinATyahoo.com

Mietek Pemper, 91, Camp Inmate Who Compiled Schindler’s List

"Mietek Pemper was doing his job as a secretary taking dictation. One day his boss, Amon Goeth, glanced out the window and saw that a worker did not have a full load of stones in his wheelbarrow. Mr. Goeth walked outside and shot the man to death, then returned to his desk and said, 'Where were we in the text?'

"In his wartime office from hell, Mr. Pemper repeatedly risked his life, using guile to gain access to classified documents and a photographic memory to record them. At one point he learned of the Nazis’ plans to exterminate Jews and others."

This is an important obituary, a tribute to a just man (a Baal Shem Tov).

The Practice by Katie O'Sullivan

Beyond
neighboring medical towers,
the surgeon surveys  within his  theater
the elixirs of healing,
bone meal, compost, soil and mulch,
his instruments of mending,
trowel, pruner, rake and
hoe,
while his supine patients,
the crimson-fevered verbena,
the jaundiced  daffodils,
and pale heliotrope
wait upon a table
in rows of pliable  pallets
under a sun drenched
umbrella.
The old practitioner
calmly evaluates procedures,
methodically checks the hour,
gauges the temperature.
Slowly, he flexes his gnarled fingers
around a coffee cup
and postpones surgery for a
nap.

Author Bio:  Katie O'Sullivan "is  late writer of poetry, essays, short stories and memoirs and one 10 minute play produced in Houston where I have  lived since  my husband's retirement. I received an AA degree from UCLA before our marriage and after our 7th. child was born I continued my education in Modern Near East History at the American University of Beirut, graduated and continued on a Master Degree program before we were transferred to the Netherlands. Living for 15 years in Lebanon was a beautiful and exciting experience and I spent much of those years as a volunteer at the American University Hospital. but between my family, studies and volunteerism, I didn't have time to write until we came to Houston."  You may contact her at K O'S email.

Deep within The Belly of The Wood

by Marion J. Dobbins

Bondage brought them
In the belly of wood they were chained
Tossed by the sea
As if less than
Forced to lie in what they created
Breaks from the black silence
Heard amidst the wailing of sorrow
Salted sea timber now moored to land
Brings no relief

For full poem: Download Deep within The Belly of The Wood

Author Bio:  Marion J. Dobbins, a 7th generation Virginian, was born and raised in a small African-American neighborhood in Merrifield Virginia.  Marion's love of history started at an early age.  She would sit and listen to the stories told by her ancestors.  These stories fueled the desire to know more about her family, her African American Heritage, her life within the County of Fairfax and Virginia.    In 1999 she, along with her husband Wayne, started an historical interpretive company called “Meet the Past”.   It is this vehicle that has afforded opportunities to interpret at such sites as Monticello, Gunston Hall, Sully Historic Site, and the University of Virginia's Juneteenth Celebration. Marion also works full/time as a Practice Manager for Fair Oaks Skin Care Center in Fairfax, VA. You can reach Mrs. Dobbins at:  Email.

Sushi, NY Style

Occasionally, the Times has an outrageously snobby article -- this one about the ultimate sushi joint is over the top.  Readers comments: "A ridiculously expensive restaurant for the super wealthy to savor fish on the brink of extincton" and "[M}ost of us can't dream of going to Masa... a clubhouse for hedge funders."

Stlll, if you are a fan of sushi, read the review of Masa in the Dining Section of the June 15, 2011 NY Times.  Before you rush out to make a reservation, "A meal for two at Masas can easily run to $1,500 — an amount that is a little more than 35 percent of the Census Bureau’s most recent calculation of the median monthly household income in the United States."

Basho - Violets

Is Anatomy Destiny?

In this TED talk, Alice Dreger, a historian and medical humanist, discusses a range of topics from intersex individuals, to people with physical deformities, to the insights of the "Founding Fathers" and what more we might have if we had had "Founding Mothers."  It's a complex talk, but worth viewing for many of us.  18 minutes.

Encounter with a Cadaver

The Cadaver

Unrecognizable, tattered
One leg intact, the other gone forever
Stringy tendons exposed, meat-like
Fingers motionless but my hands shaking
Gloves separate us
I shudder at the leathery texture of the skin, mustard yellow
Nothing like my own
Faceless, without an identity   
Unable to interact, to touch me back
Once alive, connected
Now an empty vessel, a silent “teacher” of anatomy
A roadmap
Never breathing, never moving
Always mangled
Emotionless, unfeeling
Much like my own detachment and stoicism
I feel no pity, no loss
Maybe we're more alike than I thought.

For better formatted version: Download The Cadaver

Author Bio: Andrea Goldstein is currently a freshman at Stanford University. She is hoping to major in Biology with a specialization in Neuroscience and has been fascinated by Science and the Medical field since age seven. She plans to pursue such fields in the future.  You may contact her at: andkgoldATstanford.edu  

Comment by Dr. Sandra Bertman, Distinguished Professor of Thanatology and Arts, National Center for Death Education Mount Ida College, Newton, MA.: " I wish I'd had this poem when putting together One Breath Apart: Facing Dissection.  Ah, but she did touch you back.  Profoundly, as your poem “The Cadaver” touches us.  In Image and the Arc of Feeling,  the Pulitzer Prize Winner Jorie Graham asserts that in poetry you have to feel deeply something inchoate, something which is coming up from a place you don’t even know the register of.  What a brilliant illustration.  Thank you."

On Music