Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

Honoring the Story

Daryl Potyk, a physician in the state of Washington, shares a cautinary tale with us.  His essay, "In Search of  the Story," is important for patients and care-givers alike. As physicians get busier, as care gets more fragmented between primary care doctors, PAs, NPs, hospitalists, ER docs, specialists and sub-specialists, the person as patient often becomes an invisable man.  Dr. Potyk's insight is essential.

"How could we have been taking care of Mr. Jones for as long as we had without knowing him?  We knew his blood counts, we knew about his kidneys and his liver, we had stuck needles into his abdomen to obtain fluid samples; we knew a lot about him.  We focused on his medical problems, treated him, took care of him, all without ever knowing him." Download Potyk In Search of the Story

Author Bio: Daryl Potyk, a board certified in Iinternist and geriatrician, has been teaching at the Internal Medicine Residency in Spokane, WA since 1994.  He lives in Spokane, WA with his wife and three children.  Email:  DKP.

(Photo: Homeless Man, Bowery, Manhattan from Michael Fairchild Photography: World Faces.)

Compassion and Empathy

This talk will resonate with many of you.  It discusses what should occur whenever two people meet.  Sadly, it is not at the core of medical encounters.  It could be.  If you have a few minutes, listen to roshi Joan Halifax's talk. (You might prefer full screen.)

Namaste,

The Importance of Empathy

Sam Richards starts this important piece on empathy with these words: "What is sociology?" And I tell them, "It's the study of the way in which human beings are shaped by things that they don't see." And they say, "So how can I be a sociologist? How can I understand those invisible forces?" And I say, "Empathy. Start with empathy. It all begins with empathy. Take yourself out of your shoes, put yourself into the shoes of another person." 

This talk is 18 minutes, and really helps me when I interact with others, be they family, patients, strangers.  If you have a few minutes, visit "A Radical Experiment in Empathy." You will be enlightened.

The Jogger by Caitlyn Stiglmeier

Her nail polish was the same color as mine. The same silver ipod was clipped to her Nike running shorts. Aside from the banded design tattooed on her ankle and the star at her right hip, I felt as though I was looking at myself lying there on the table, dry-fit top and sports bra being cut away, central lines and IV’s being placed. What was she thinking of as she laced up her running shoes that afternoon? Certainly not that her run would lead her here...

read more... Download The Jogger 1

You may contact Caitlin at cstiglmeierATgmail.com 

Marginal Notes: Learning to capture the human figure

In his series of articles on the art of drawing, artist and author James McMullan speaks to that intuitive intelligence which the visual artist needs to cultivate in order to capture forces inherent in the human body:

Once we tune into these cooperative forces that animate the body, they seem obvious; yet opening up the kind of intuitive intelligence we need in order to see these forces is difficult when we are so used to relying mainly on the simple scanning operations of our eyes. As we draw, we need to record pressures and not just edges, and we need to see relationships between parts rather than just pieces of the body.

Reading these words, I was struck by the similarity between the art employed in drawing the human figure and the art of the practice of medicine.  Both require the use of intuition to recognize the forces in play before the eyes of the observer.  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."

Ageing I

Tomorrow by Jane Butkin Wagner

I'm not sure who pulled away first. Our visits more formal, less frequent, less natural now.  I cannot hear my children. I choose to smile and nod, inappropriately, rather than ask again and again for them to repeat themselves, only to hear one say are you annoying me on purpose?   I try to be a good sport and laugh, too, when they dissolve into laughter because my response has been an answer to a different question.

I am not sure when I turned into the old lady, the one with slow steps, bad eyes, and failing hearing. Into the target of laughs and rolling eyes from my own children, from other people's children... to read more Download Tomorrow 

Author Bio:  Poet, Jane Butkin Wagner is a  native of Oklahoma City who now lives with her husband in Houston and Oslo. She has three grown children.

 

Camp Xanadu

Samuel Isaac Grondahl is a (rising) junior Economics major at Yale. He grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY, where I spends most of his summers.  Sam learned more as a counselor at a summer camp for special needs adults than he did in the ivy classrooms.  His reverie of Camp Xanadu is uplifting.  Download Camp Xanadu This is the season for camps --so it is appropriate to post his words here.  You may contact Samuel at SIG-Email.

Sam's essay reminded me of two films. "King Gimp" and "My Left Foot."  Both are amazing.  See MedFlix.

The photo is of a painting by the protagonist of King Gimp, an artist with C.P..

Wicked Boring, Dude!

  "Close Encounters of the Cutaneous Kind"

When Williams freshman, Seth Tobolsky, told his friends about being assigned to shadow two dermatologists during his January term this past winter they replied with cautions like: "Dude, you are going to be wicked bored."  Seth was pleasantly surprised by his elective class and has written an enlightening and entertaining essay about it.  Please read his narrative and send him your thoughts.  Easy to read PDF: Download Seth- Close Encounters

Author Bio: Seth Tobolsky is a current sophomore at Williams College, and planning to be a Spanish major and Neuroscience concentrator. His post-graduation goal is to attend medical school, and he is excited to publish his first essay in Cell 2 Soul. You may reach him at mailto:sat2ATwilliams.edu. 

Pupil as Teacher

Daniella Lamas was an intern when she met a young man with terminal heart failure on I.C.U. rounds.  Through Facebook she learned  "[h]e was 'single,' and he liked Radiohead and Tom Clancy. He’d been sending upbeat status updates from the I.C.U.; to read them, you’d never know he was so sick, but to me they were missives from a dying man"

Her essay, Friend Request, is as moving as any I've read.  I know you will appreciate  it.

Osler wrote:  "The pupil and the teacher working together on the same lines, only one a little ahead of the other.  This is the ideal towards which we should move."  Daniela Lamas, medical intern, with this essay is the professor for all of us: her colleagues, professionals and laypeople alike.

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Marginal Notes: Living on the edge of being

In an article that appeared in the New York Times Magazine on Aug. 26, 1990—Doctor, Talk to Me—Anatole Broyard envisioned the ideal physician who would treat a patient's body—and his soul:

''In learning to talk to his patients, the doctor may talk himself back into loving his work. He has little to lose and much to gain by letting the sick man into his heart. If he does, they can share, as few others can, the wonder, terror and exaltation of being on the edge of being, between the natural and the supernatural.''  >>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."