Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

A 500 Pound Amoeba

 

A 500 Pound Amoeba
and Other Psychiatric Tales

 

Steve Sobel is a practicing psychiatrist in northern Vermont. "A 500 Pound Amoeba" is a collection of 10 compelling vignettes of patients with psychiatric illnesses. These comprise depression, mania, OCD, body dysmorphic disorder, borderline personality, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, acrophobia, psychotic depression, and dementia. The stories are told with great sensitivity. Each one is divided into two parts. The first describing the illness as appreciated from the patient’s vantage point and the second explains the clinician’s approach and touches on the doctor-patient relationship.

We have all known patients like the composites Dr. Sobel eloquently conveys. As physicians, we have all had patients like these. Sobel’s narrative style is easy to read and follow.  These tales afford profound insights into the illnesses covered.

This slender volume of less than 130 pages will make compelling reading for physicians, mental health professionals, trainees, medical students and all others with an interest in mental health.  Sobel has a humble, gentle, compassionate writing style and the tales are memorable. The narrative form employed also serves as a template for the presentation of similar patients.  Reading "A 500 Pound Amoeba" one recalls Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" but I found Sobel's book less didacticand more humane.

A 500 Pound Amoeba is available at Amazon for around $10 and also on Kindle for $7.

Prodigal Patient: A Reflection on Loss

by Richard Ratzan, M.D.

Last week a patient died. It was not on my watch. And he was a hopeless alcoholic whose death was a long time a comin'. Yet his death has unhinged me and many - most - of my colleagues, from nurses to doctors to aides - in a way that no other death has affected an Emergency Department staff in my 40 years of practice. I did what I ordinarily do when an event intrudes upon and usurps my consciousness - I analyzed it from the perspective of a writer whose assignment it was to understand it well enough to convey to a reader what and how and why it meant what it did for us. For I intuitively realized that only when I could write about it for a reader who did not know Jamie (name changed) would I have achieved clarity of comprehension for myself.

To read the full essay:   Download Prodigal Patient C2S

Rich Ratzan is a poet, classical scholar, ER doc and much more.  He can be reached at:  richratzanATyahoo.com

Father's Day by Elizabeth Schwing

"I often wonder how different things would be with my dad had I opted not to go with him to Tulsa to see his mother before she died. When I talked to my parents, they insisted that grandmother would be fine and there was no reason to go. As always, I believed them, even though she was ninety-four and had just had a massive heart attack. When I hung up and looked over at my husband, Ned, he just shook his head and said, “You’re going...”  Download Father’s Day.

Author Bio: "I am a native Houstonian and a freelance writer.  I am a married mother of three children and former elementary school teacher.  When I am not writing, I love to read, drink coffee with friends, take walks with my husband, practice yoga, and piddle around in my garden with my dogs."  You may reach her at E.S. Email.

A Blessing in Disguise

Josh Little is not a respected professor, researcher, or talking head.  He recently did time in a Florida jail.  The class paper he wrote for his community college English course teaches us that wisdom can come from many sources.  Good luck Josh!  You are on track.

"On January 6^th, 2011, I was sentenced to 364 days in the Santa Rosa County Jail in Milton, Florida.  To many, this probably seems like a punishment, but to me, jail saved my life..."  To read more  Download A Blessing in Disguise

 

My Blessing in Disguise by Josh Little

On January 6th, 2011, I was sentenced to 364 days in the Santa Rosa County Jail in Milton, Florida.  To many, this probably seems like a punishment, but to me, jail saved my life. I spent most of my teenage years getting in and out of trouble. I was always involved with the court system. I wasn’t a horrible kid. I was just raised in the rough part of the city growing up with parents who could hardly afford to pay bills.

Full story: Download Josh Little

Titanic to Taxis

by Beatrice Elpern

On April 18, 1912, my father, Albert Zuflacht, was 20 years old and working at Gimbels department store on 33^rd Street in New York City.

 He was approached that day, and asked if he knew how to operate an electric car.

He answered honestly. “No.”

“Well,” they said, “you will learn.”

And he did.

Carpathia at W. 12th St, Pier, 4/18/1912

That very day, he drove the electric car, filled with blankets from the store  on 33^rd Street, to Pier 54 in Manhattan. The Hudson River pier at Little West 12^th Street was where survivors of the Titanic disaster would be brought by the Carpathia that evening, three days after the “unsinkable” ship sunk on its maiden voyage.

I often wonder if learning to drive that day led to my father’s career choice.

My father became one of the first taxicab drivers in New York City. It was he and several other drivers who successfully lobbied for taxicab insurance in the city. And when the bill was passed, he became president of the first taxicab insurance company in this country: The 20^th Century Taxicab Insurance Company.

That company eventually went bankrupt in the Great Depression, but he remained in the taxicab insurance business for the rest of his working years.

There was a time when every cab driver in New York City knew the name Albert Zuflacht.

Author Bio:  Betty Zuflacht Elpern resides in Bronxville, N.Y. only six miles from where she grew up in the Bronx.  Her memories tie us to a time our young readers can only marvel at.  You may email her at BZE.

Bayt (House of Stone)

"In Arabic, the word 'bayt' translates literally as house, but its connotations resonate beyond rooms and walls, summoning longings gathered about family and home. In the Middle East, bayt is sacred. Empires fall. Nations topple. Borders may shift. Old loyalties may dissolve or, without warning, be altered. Home, whether it be structure or familiar ground, is finally the identity that does not fade."

Is it all that different for most of us?  Home is where the heart is.

Anthony Shahid was one of the two journalists who died recently in Syria.  He succombed to asthma -- probably treatable had he been in a stable country.  A moving essay of his appeared in the NY Times on Sunday, February, 20.

It was an excerpt from his forth coming book, "House of Stone" which will be published on February 28, 2012.  Will be available for Kindle, as hard cover and MP3.

Henry Miller wrote:  "Chaos is the score upon which reality is written."  Certainly, Syria is the nexus of chaos at this moment -- but "the moving finger writes and having writ moves on."  Concepts like Bayt endure.

Traditional Lebanese "House of Stone"

Coach Lenox Chombo

A story from Malawi

Coach's son, Hobson

Coach is lying outside of his house on a straw mat. We casually chat about the good times we spent together. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a little boy kicking a ball of plastic bags.  I ask Coach, who is the little boy?  He said this is my son Hobson.  The little boy comes over and sits in my lap.  He is not afraid of strangers, like so many children here.  I look him over very carefully and say, Coach, he has hair looks like mine.  Coach agrees and says, we men always laughed at your hair, but secretly wished we had hair like yours.  Hobson was conceived during the time you and I traveled together and I served as your interpreter. You are my brother and we love each other like brothers.  That is why Hobson has hair likes you.  Coach is very sick and I see that he is tiring and wishes to rest. I know that I must talk with him about going to the hospital...   Download Coach Lennox Chombo

 

Dean Sneed (big hair)

Author Bio:  Stephen Sneed is the Associate Dean of the College at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  He is passionate about Southeast Africa and Malawi,in particular.  Sneed is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.  Among the awards that he has received is a Senior Fulbright Scholar Fellowship and two Fulbright Senior Specialist awards.  He has consulted at many schools, colleges, youth centers and communities on diversity issues and advocating for children of color.  Email.

 

My Mama Mia! by G. Evelyn Lampart

“You will need a mastectomy,” the barely middle-aged breast surgeon with strawberry blonde hair, Dr. G., is saying. She looks too charming and nice to perform such a violent action.  Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, her cheeks are round and joyful, her toenails are each painted a different color, and she wears strappy sandals that showcase her healthy legs. How incongruous for her to use the dreaded word: Mastectomy. Unfathomable. I am shriveling. Shrinking. She couldn't mean me. I didn't do anything wrong. Read full essay: Download My Mamma Mia

Author Bio: Evelyn Lampart is a licensed clinical social worker, as well as a writer and painter. Her latest endeavor was to join a group reading works of literature in Yiddish, her mother tongue.  Email: Evelyn Lampart.

Image: Life's Mastectomy by Artist Sara Molano

A modified version of this post is being published in the International Journal of User Driven Healthcare (IJUDH).

My Uncle "Doc"

In Pittsburgh, instead of going to a doctor, my family usually consulted Doc, my mother’s oldest brother who was an internist. After he entered medical school, he was always called “Doc” instead of Abe. Doc Starr was a quiet, serious, modest man, not tall, and with a gray moustache. Late in life he married Helen, who had worked for him as an office assistant and then became his companion. 

Renee Marks Cohen has graciously submitted her moving piece about "Doc."  You will enjoy it:  Download My Uncle Doc – Abraham Starr. You may contact Ms. Cohen at: RMC_Email.