Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. 

Debra Gordon, A Medical Writer’s Musings, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. It’s the “customer service in healthcare” edition. You can read this week’s edition here.

I want to start this week's Grand Rounds' blog with my own blog post. I asked for postings on customer service and I have one to share. My 17-year-old son has been having some issues with depression and social anxiety. We got him in to see a therapist and his family practitioner prescribed a low dose of Prozac, both of which seemed to be helping until he hit a crisis when his girlfriend broke up with him. He literally fell apart and scared us to death.

His therapist called me back the night of the crisis within 5 minutes of my leaving a message with the answering service. He was only in town for a week before leaving for vacation, but he saw our son twice and called our son's primary care doctor to suggest upping the antidepressant dose. The doctor called me one evening to say she totally concurred and, since our son's therapist would be out of town the following week, wanted to see our son herself.

I was so touched…………….

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A nice CBC News article featuring @globalsurgeon on maternal health:  Africa and the surgical imbalance by Nick Czernkovich.

I met Adam in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was born by cesarean section and then, a few months later, he was back at hospital for emergency stomach surgery. At the age of 23, he again found himself under the knife for an appendectomy.

Adam is one of the lucky ones. Born and raised in the U.S., he had access to these relatively basic but life-saving surgeries without which he — and his mother — would probably not have survived.

Now 44, Dr. Adam Kushner is a certified general surgeon, but the small miracles of his early surgical encounters have not been lost on him.

Dr. Adam Kushner in Masisi, DRC, in April 2010. (Nick Czernkovich/CBC)

When I met him he was working for Doctors Without Borders in a rural hospital in the town of Masisi in North Kivu province, one of the most troubled in the eastern Congo…………….

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OncRN, an oncology nurse, has written a lovely post on saying good-bye to our patients:

you care for a patient for months, maybe years.
eventually the end comes…….
this line of work is littered with or decorated by (depending on your state of mind) many, many good-byes
this variety is uniquely emotional and complicated because our language and/or culture is sorely lacking in words appropriate for such a send off.
i'm sorry? godspeed? farewell? stay in touch? - nothing quite works.
anything, though, to avoid the ubiquitous 'take care'.…
you wish you could turn it over to your son……….

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Dr. Rob set up a blog for Zippy a few years ago to raise money for research for childhood brain cancer. It was/is a tribute to Dr. Smak’s son who was diagnosed with brain cancer and lost his fight. Initially, there was much giving. I even made a quilt which we auctioned off for the cause.

Zippy has recently been in New York with Intueri who is a wonderful writer. I hope you will check out her reports of Zippy’s adventures and consider making a donation.

Introducing Zippy.

Zippy Goes to Times Square.

Zippy Goes to Wall Street.

Zippy Goes to Bryant Park.

Zippy Looks at the New York City Skyline.

Zippy Goes to Central Park.

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Discovered a “new to me” dermatology blog:  Only the Best Skin Care Advice Blog via a comment on my blog post yesterday by the author, Dr. Cynthia Bailey.   Check out her recent post:   Cracked, Dry, Brittle and Splitting Fingernails; Dermatologist’s Tips

THE PROBLEM:

Your nails dry out as you age, losing their natural oils which act as a glue to hold the nail layers together. If you have thin fingernails and dry skin to begin with you can expect this to happen to you ‘sooner rather than later’. 

Exposing your hands to harsh soaps, cleaning products, solvents and rough work makes things worse. At first your nails begin to ‘fray’ on the edges, becoming brittle. Eventually the layers split. 

Nail hardeners make this worse because the alcohols, formaldehyde and other chemicals in the nail hardeners really dry out your natural oils. (Crazy fact: Nail hardeners actually contain more of these chemicals than nail polishes!  It’s these chemicals that make the nails feel harder at first, but- whammo- after a few weeks the splitting is worse than ever.)

THE FIX:……………….

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This past weekend I made another messenger bag. This one using old cargo pants, making good use of two of the great pockets.

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Dr Anonymous’ BTR show guest this week will be Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, 33 Charts. The show begins at 9 pm ET.

Upcoming shows (9pm ET)