November 28th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Diabetes, Endocrinology, Finger Stick, Guillotine, Internal Medicine, Type 1 Diabetes
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Last week, on Twitter, Elizabeth Arnold posted a link to a photo that made my whole body cringe and I instinctively said, “Oh crap, THAT thing?” (I’m stealing and reposting this photo here, but the original photo credit belongs to Cardinal Health.)
Behold – The Guillotine:
This photo made me shudder because I remember this lancing device clearly. It was the first one I ever used, outside of having my finger pricked by the nurses with the lancet alone, and I remember the shunk sound it made as it came careening towards my fingertip. It wasn’t the standard shunk we know now – this sucker would have to be cocked back like a rifle, and once it clicked loudly into place, you had to hit that button on the back to release the spring-loaded lancet. And it wasn’t just spring-loaded – The Guillotine had an agenda. It would come screaming over the top of the curve and embed itself into your fingertip, and it was all my mother could do to keep my hand pressed against that little plastic circle at the bottom there.
I hated it. It scared the crap out of me, and even though more humane lancing devices were introduced soon after my diagnosis, The Guillotine lived in our house much longer than I’d care to admit. Even the lancets looked like little harpoons. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
November 28th, 2009 by Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Board Exam, Emergency Medicine, Medical Boards, Most Common, NYC, Questions, Test
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I took my board exam this week, and I think I liked it.
Which is not to say it was easy, or even altogether fair. And though I felt a little bit better upon finishing than these folks, I could be grossly deluded in my estimation of the number and trickiness of truly tough questions.
But there was a point in the exam, three or four hours into it, when I was overcome by the sheer variety of extraordinary patient presentations — the environmental catastrophes, bizarre overdoses and bites from creatures great and small. Overcome, not because I’ve never seen patients like this (for the most part, I haven’t) or because I didn’t know how to diagnose and manage them (I think I did), but really because these questions underscored what an amazing specialty I’ve chosen. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
November 26th, 2009 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips
Tags: Dermatology, Finger Nail, Injury, Motorcycle, Nail Bed, Plastic Surgery
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I was supplied these photos by someone who found my blog and then corresponded with me regarding their injury. He had injured his fingers in a motorcycle accident six weeks previous to our “meeting.” He understood that I could not be his treating physician and keep his questions respectful of that. I am grateful to him for the use of his photos as they show how healing occurs.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
November 26th, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Birth, Dangers, Doula, Infectious Disease, Midwife, Midwifery, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pregnancy, Water, Waterbirth
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By Dr. Amy Tuteur
Waterbirth has been touted as an alternative form of pain relief in childbirth. Indeed, it is often recommended as the method of choice for pain relief in “natural” childbirth. It’s hardly natural, though. In fact, it is completely unnatural. No primates give birth in water, because primates initiate breathing almost immediately after birth and the entire notion of waterbirth was made up only 200 years ago. Not surprisingly, waterbirth appears to increase the risk of neonatal death. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
November 25th, 2009 by Emergiblog in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Annenberg School of Journalism, Healthcare reform, Poverty, Public Health, Socio-Economics, USC
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I was part of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism’s “Health and the Blogosphere” conference/brainstorming session last week. Bloggers and other health writers were invited to give input on a new professional training program, and I was honored to be a part of that group.
I took away so much more than I contributed. An unexpected focus (for me) was the idea of taking the blogosphere dialog about our own health (”my health”) and expanding that into a discussion about the health of our communities (”our health”).
But haven’t we’ve been doing that for the last year, health care reform having been debated ad nauseam?
Well, no. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*
