January 23rd, 2010 by Bongi in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Breast Cancer, Breast Surgery, Chest Mass, Chest X-Ray, Fungating, General Surgery, Neglected, Sangoma, South Africa, Surgeon, Tumor
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After having spoken about when you seem to know more than your consultant, I was reminded of another incident from my internship year where a colleague of mine taught me that sometimes it is best to do certain things under cover of darkness.
The patient (a sangoma) turned up at the surgery clinic one day. My colleague asked her what the problem was. Without uttering a word she lifted up her shirt to expose her breasts. The left one had a massive tumour that had fungated through the skin probably some time ago. There was a large stinking cauliflower-like mass with central ulceration that caused a fist sized cavity right up to the chest wall. The smell was also remarkable. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
January 21st, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Biomedical Ethics, Death, End Of Life Care, Geriatrics, Journalism, Mortality, Nursing, Palliative Care, Taboo
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Back in the day when I was a newspaper reporter I completed a biomedical ethics fellowship at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA. In addition to sitting in on the hospital’s bioethics committee discussions, I spent much of the week shadowing a nurse in the ICU.
They called her the Death Nurse because her job was to intervene with doctors, nurses, patients and families when the time came for a patient to move from the ICU to hospice. While her title was Supportive Care, she flat out told her me her job was to help people die; not actively, but from behind the scenes by helping patients and those caring for them understand when the time had come to move from curative care to supportive care (email me if you’d like a copy of the article I wrote about her). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Debra Gordon on Medical Writing (and other medical topics of interest)*
January 20th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: Bikini Wax, Brazilian Wax, Burn, Dermatology, Hair Removal, Injury
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I don’t know a thing about bikini line waxing. But I do know there is a right way to wax your bikini line and a wrong way wax your bikini line. I present to you a story about how not to wax your bikini line. I do not know the original author, but I’m sure they want to keep it that way.
My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours:
‘Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet.’ Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 20th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Cynicism, Drug Seekers, Emergency Medicine, ER, Homelessness, IV Drug Use, Meth, Narcotics
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The ER is a highly effective bottom-filter for society. When you work in the ER you are in daily contact with the worst that mankind has to offer: addicts, sociopaths, criminals, and the many many varieties of personality disorders with which a loving God has imbued humanity. I say this not as condemnation: they are my people. I know them and accept them for who they are. I am here every day to serve them in their various needs, from the heroin addict who is dropped off blue and apneic to the homeless guy who just wants his unwashed feet looked at.
One of the refreshing features of many members of the lumpenproletariat is their candor regarding their habits. Sure, it’s by no means universal, but it’s entirely common for me to ask someone quite directly: “Do you use meth?” and have the patient respond in the affirmative and without the least trace of self-consciousness expand on the degree and nature of their drug use. The hardest question for me to learn to ask without blushing was “do you ever have sex for money or drugs?” (And yes, I do ask that of both men and women, when it seems potentially relevant.) But people on occasion forthrightly admit that they turn the odd trick to support their habit. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
January 17th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Baby, Diabetes, Endocrinology, Fetal Movement, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pregnancy, Type 1 Diabetes
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Yesterday’s Diabetes 365 photo was this:
This little, blue, ceramic hippo came with a circus playset I received decades ago. I can’t even remember how long I’ve had it, but since college, this one creature has been living in the drawer in every bathroom of every apartment I’ve ever lived in. It just refuses to be lost or misplaced, though its face is chipped and it’s not the same vibrant blue it once was.
Over the last few days, BSparl has been moving actively and visibly, poking her little legs and arms into my abdomen and dancing around in there. Being the mature adult that I am, I wanted to see if she would respond to things being placed on my belly. If Chris puts his hand on me, she reacts immediately. (She loves her daddy best, I think.) I rested a glass of ice water on my stomach for just a second the other day and she went after it like Siah after a pump cap. And yesterday, a warm mug of tea made her jut her legs out aggressively. (Someone on Twitter said this baby has beverage editorial going on. I’m not shocked – she’s my kid, so she’s bound to have some strong opinions on stuff.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
After having spoken about when you seem to know more than your consultant, I was reminded of another incident from my internship year where a colleague of mine taught me that sometimes it is best to do certain things under cover of darkness.
