Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

On The Brink

by Alexandra Godfrey.

"I sense her fear the moment I walk into the room. Perched on the edge of the exam table, my patient teeters on the brink, wavering between stability and instability, presence and absence. Her smile betrays her too. Fleeting and forced, this grin is not an authentic expression of happiness, but rather one of those overzealous attempts to appear content. I smile back at her, effortlessly returning her greeting as I consider the possibilities:...

You will enjoy this fine vignette, and it will inspire some of us, too.  Full piece: Download On the Brink 

Author Bio: Alexandra Godfrey is a second-year physician assistant student at Wayne State University She may be contacted at: ax3316@wayne.edu
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Good Old-fashioned Medicine

Sixty years ago, W. Eugene Smith, eulogized the old-style doctor in his iconic photo-essay of Ernest Ceriani, the family doctor of Kremmeling, Colorado.  Today's caring physician is likely to be a retired old-school physician with skills honed by years of diligent practice. 

Susan Kaplan shares with us a harrowing medical (mis)adventure.  Reading it will be enlightening and may well help you, a patient, friend or famiiy member lost in the country of illness.  Her story is a tribute to the intuition of a caring physician who listened when others were rushed and formulaic.

"As I pulled into our driveway that summer evening at the conclusion of my bike ride home from work, I felt a sudden stabbing pain in my right chest. Climbing the stairs to my second floor bedroom, I began to feel light-headed.  I was breathing in and out rapidly but the air didn't seem to stay in my lungs and I began to panic that I might be having a heart attack..."  So begins

Full "Good Old-fashioned Medicine:" Download OldFashMed

Sue Kaplan may be reached at:  sue.kaplan@post.harvard.edu

Marginal Notes: The Child Psychiatrist

“Abuela, push me on the swing.”

“Not now, Alexi.  I’m not feeling well this morning.”

“Can you please take me out for a bicycle ride?”

“No, maybe later.”

“Abuela—please!”

“No.”

Six-year-old Alexi pouted as Maria brought her hand up to her forehead to shield her eyes. Suddenly Alexi’s face brightened.

“Abuela, come with me.”  She pulled Maria by the hand, leading her into the front parlor.  >>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."

Artful Insight: Gamaliel and the Mouse

 

Virgin of Guadalupe and Juan Diego

Lois Jones is a professional artist living in south central Pennsylvania, where she continues to draw inspiration for her paintings.  After a career teaching art in the public schools, Ms. Jones now finds fulfillment in helping prison inmates to express themselves through artistic venues.

Gamaliel & the Mouse is Ms. Jones' latest vignette about a former inmate in her art class.

As I picked up a box from the store room shelf, a shrill scream erupted spontaneously from my mouth. A small mouse had scurried down my arm! Probably as frightened as I was, it dashed across the floor, almost crashing into the far wall in its fervent desire to escape. Its fearful demeanor reminded me of one of my students, Gamaliel. Download Gamaliel & the Mouse

Readers can access a previous Cell2Soul post by Ms. Jones here.  Ms. Jones may be contacted at this e-mail address.

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."

The Medical Duppy

Larry Zaroff relates the strange story of a Jamaican health clinic, the duppy that haunted it and some Western medical workers from the good ship, Hope..  To many in the Caribbean, duppies, jumbies and other creatures of the night are real.  Dan Tormey, a chaplain on the hospital ship, Hope, told this strange tale to Larry. 

The Medical Duppy: Download MEDICAL DUPPY

*Larry Zaroff, a frequent contributor to Cell 2 Soul, currently teaches medical humanities to premedical and medical students at Stanford. He has received awards as the outstanding faculty advisor for the Human Biology program and in 2006 was honored as Stanford's Teacher of the Year.  You may email him at: larryz.zaroff@gmail.com 

Photo Credit: johnstilgoe.co.uk . 

White Whispers by Karen Lee

"Go back to China," a woman yells from her car window as I cross the street.  Her White Whispers soak in and echo.  Drench my body like the agony of song."  So begins a powerfully moving "autoethnography" by Karen Lee from Vancouver, B.C. Download White Whispers

This essay is particularly timely since some newspapers (NY Post for one) have published racist cartoons aimed at President Obama.

Karen V. Lee is a Faculty Advisor and co-founder of the Teaching Initiative for Music Educators cohort (TIME) at the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C, Canada  Her research interests include issues of musician/teacher identity, music/teacher education, performance ethnography, women’s life histories, autoethnography, writing practices, and arts-based approaches to qualitative research.  Her doctoral dissertation, was a book of short stories, titled Riffs of Change:  Musicians Becoming Music Educators.   She is a musician, writer, music educator, and researcher.   Currently, she teaches undergraduate and graduate students in traditional and online contexts at the university.  You may contact her at: Email

Margnal Notes: The Sick Rose

Marginal Notes is Brian Maurer's weekly column.  You may contact Brian at Email.

Precis:  The rose that blooms today soon fades away.  Like those tender petals, our lives are fragile and transient.  Sometimes a toddler might bring this fact to mind; sometimes an older patient may do the same. 

At the insistence of her mother, I recently saw a 21-year-old woman for a physical exam.  I've taken care of her since she was an infant.  When she was a preschooler she had surgery for a brain tumor.  Later the astrocytoma recurred, and she had another round of surgery.  Now she's been tumor-free for the past decade, studying to become a medical therapist at one of the local colleges.

Since I last saw her eighteen months ago she dropped her weight from 128 to 93 pounds — a net loss of 35 pounds.  Imagine a skeleton with breasts and wasted  buttocks — that's how she looks now.  She still has a stunningly beautiful face with a ready smile and pleasant disposition.  I spent quite a bit of time talking with her.  In the end I sent her for lab work with a plan to increase her caloric intake through small frequent feedings.  She agreed to come back to see me in a week.   
 
How fragile, how precious these short lives of ours are.

A friend reading this piece said it called to mind William Blake's poem:

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

For a longer version of this essay go to:  Download Maurer Rose

The Animal Kingdom

Occasionally, a story comes along that is so moving (and in this case funny, too) that it just has to be shared.  This is from Story Corps.  It is all of two minutes and 45 seconds.

Please listen to it if you want to smile, laugh and feel good for a few minutes.

A Snowy Day Experience: Frozen in Time

(Photo is of Dr. Jim Fleming and his daughter, Janetta.)

Endings

"Just home from a three-day conference, I was upstairs unpacking when my wife approached me with the news that Avery was in the hospital.

His wife had called that morning to report that his breathing had gotten much worse while I was away.  Repeat x-rays and CT scan showed that the tumors and lymph nodes had enlarged considerably; they were now putting pressure on the breathing tubes in Avery’s lungs.  He had developed fluid in the chest, and one lung had partially collapsed..."

Here is Brian's moving tribute to his friend:  Download Avery.pdf.

 Brian Maurer (pictured to the left) is a pediatric physician's assistant and talented writer. His vignettes have appeared in JAMA, Cell 2 Soul and in the Yale Journal for the Humanities in Medicine.