October 23rd, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
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I flew back from San Francisco just in time to get to the National Press Club’s annual “Cartoons & Cocktails” event. Two of my cartoons were auctioned off for charity – along with donations from many other artists. Lynn Johnston (the syndicated cartoonist behind “For Better Or Worse”) sent in two original cells, though political cartoons made up the bulk of the offerings (including a signed copy of the scandalous New Yorker cover about Senator Obama). It was truly an honor to have my work featured along with such talented peers.
Of course, I asked my husband to join me at the event to take pictures. I have a new iPhone – and its camera seems to have a bit of a learning curve. I was a little disappointed that my head was cut in half for most of the shots, and that my TV interview with an Indian political team was captured from behind my head. The Washington Examiner had its own photographer – so I might show up in the “social sightings” in one piece.
For your amusement, I offer my husband’s chronicles of the evening:
October 9th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
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Dr Val
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Thanks for visiting my new website, everyone! I’m really glad you’re here… Please take the time to vote in my polls so I can learn a little bit more about who you are. To be honest, I’ve never really known WHO my audience was at my former blog at Revolution Health. I just kept chirping away, with the occasional comment/feedback. Now that I have my own site I’ll be interested in getting to know you better, just as some of you have gotten to know me over the past few years.
So what is this website about, anyway? Well, it’s my hope that the site will provide you with a few things:
1. Straight talk about a wide variety of health topics
2. Entertaining and educational interviews with experts, celebrities, and patients
3. Laughter therapy via cartoons and humorous writing
4. A trusted source of health information for yourself and your family
5. Access to the very best health bloggers via a weekly digest called Grand Rounds
I am committed to integrity, transparency, and scientific accuracy. I will give 10% of any advertising revenues directly to charity, and I will always let you know exactly how the site is monetized and disclose any potential personal conflicts of interest or biases.
My ultimate goal is to help people “get better health.” Whether that means modifying our behaviors, taking better care of our chronic illnesses, or living life to the fullest despite a limitation or disability. This is a website for men and women, for healthcare professionals and patients, for moms and dads, for baby boomers and generation X-ers. Everyone is welcome, and I hope you’ll come back regularly for a dose of positive reinforcement as we all work together on getting better health.
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Many thanks to those of you who hosted me while I was “homeless.”
June 1st, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Humor
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Ok, I’ll admit it – I spend a lot of time on the Internet. Sometimes I ignore my husband while I’m blogging or emailing folks in the evenings or weekends. I know I need to find better “life balance” and give at least my immediate family (kitty and hubby) the right amount of attention.
Regular readers of my blog know that my husband is a funny guy. Lately he has really outdone himself. When I’m deep into a blog post or an email and he wants me to listen to him, he has taken to pulling on my “doctor-heart strings” by announcing that he has a certain disease or condition that needs attention. Of course, my husband is not a physician, so he isn’t sure how to use all the medical terminology that he hears here and there. This is what he said yesterday when I was on the Internet:
Hubby: Help!
Dr. Val: Mrpmph.
Hubby: Help! I need help!
Dr. Val: Hrmph, sigh.
Hubby: Help! I have antalgic encephalopathy!*
Dr. Val: (Cogs and wheels turning as I consider what that fake disease would actually look like). Ha, ha, ha! Ok, honey I get it – you need a hug and some attention.
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*For non-doctors: “antalgic” is almost always used to describe a limp to alleviate pain when walking. “Encephalopathy” means degeneration of brain function. So I guess a person with antalgic encephalopathy would be walking funny due to some sort of brain infection/disorder.
How does your significant other get your attention?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 22nd, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Humor
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My husband said this after contemplating his accidental role as softball captain for his work team:
“I think I’m a closet extrovert.”This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 20th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
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Blogging is a social hobby that has brought me many new friends. I suppose one could say that blogging is a modern form of “pen pals” – only more public, and with faster responses. The medical blogosphere (comprised of people who blog primarily about health topics) is small but growing rapidly. Those who have been blogging for 3 years or more have achieved a kind of patriarchal/matriarchal status within our peer group, and they can be depended upon to serve up interesting facts, commentary, and true life stories on a nearly daily basis.
Although I read about 70 medical blogs regularly, I have met only 2 of these bloggers in person. I met Ramona Bates, physicist, plastic surgery blogger, and quilter extraordinaire in Little Rock, Arkansas last year and even observed one of her surgeries in the O.R. She took me to a fried catfish bar with her hubby and I met her affable chocolate lab, Rusty - a sizeable dog who doesn’t take direction from strangers.
I have been a big fan of Dr. Rob Lamberts’ Musings of a Distractible Mind. Of all the blogs I read, his is probably the least predictable. Interspersed between insightful commentary of health IT and helpful clinical pearls, one will find diatribes about accordians, dancing-goat exposés, and warnings about mutant cucumbers. For those who arrive at his blog looking for health content, yet unaware of Dr. Rob’s tendencies, I can imagine that certain posts might leave them with a quizzical feeling.
So I wasn’t terribly surprised when Dr. Rob arrived at Revolution Health late one Friday afternoon carrying a small grocery bag containing a plastic lobster. My astute colleagues realized at once that this was the sign of a man who needed a beer – and he was immediately offered one at our in-office happy hour. I waited a few minutes for the beverage to take effect before I inquired as to the purpose of the lobster.
Dr. Rob has named his lobster ”Zippy,” and plans to have him sent around to various medical bloggers to be photographed in interesting places. He has created a website for these photos, and has a strategy for raising money for brain cancer associated with Zippy’s travels. I was honored to be one of Zippy’s first stops on the blog trail and will need to find some interesting photo settings for him in DC.
Currently dear Zippy is sitting on my desk top, confirming to colleagues that I must indeed be a woman of rather ecclectic decorative office tastes. I certainly hope that Zippy will develop a cult following for his good cause.
The rest of my time with Dr. Rob was most enjoyable – I had no idea that he was a Rochesterian (i.e. from Rochester, New York) as I have a secret fondness for people from that part of the world (hey, I married one!) We had dinner at a local Inn and Dr. Rob and my hubby gleefully discussed health IT interoperability initiatives. I listened with interest, and toasted to a couple of guys trying to make healthcare better for Americans – lobsters and all.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
