Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017-- photos and all links removed as many are no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

Dr Mike Sevilla (formerly Dr. Anonymous), Family Medicine Rocks, is the host for this week’s of Grand Rounds! You can read this week’s edition here.

I'm honored to be hosting Grand Rounds for the fourth time. This is not the GR theme today, but I did want to mention that it's Doctor's Day tomorrow in the United States. Doctor's Day was first observed on March 30, 1933. Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles Almond, decided to set aside a day to honor physicians.

The red carnation is commonly used as the symbolic flower for National Doctors Day. In 1990, law was passed designating March 30 as "National Doctors Day." Big shout out to all my physician colleagues out there!  ……

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A very moving post by Richard Sheff, MD on KevinMD.com: Giving the patient and family precious minutes to say goodbye

Dorothy suffered a second heart attack, leaving more of her heart muscle damaged and causing her to slip into congestive heart failure. There was not much we could do to reverse the many blockages in her arteries. Yet she was cheerful, as were her four children.

One morning Mary came to find me. “Dorothy says she isn’t feeling well.” …………….

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HT to @hrana for the link to this HuffPost article by Robert M. Tornambe, M.D: "What Is Beauty? A Plastic Surgeon's Perspective"

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~ Confucius

The word "beauty" is the most overused, misunderstood, poorly defined word in the English language. What makes a woman beautiful? The Holy Grail of beauty has never been completely understood. The cliché, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," is incorrect in my opinion. Perception is the key. It is "perception of beauty" that is in the eye of the beholder. Each of us, however, has a different perception of beauty. We all have different tastes, likes and dislikes, and this affects our definition and perception of beauty with regard to the American woman. As a plastic surgeon, it is my job to counsel people about this perception of beauty because so many misconceptions exist. ……….

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HT to @helenjaques for sharing this tweet “RT @BMAstudents Self experimenting doctors: Altruistic or self serving? http://bit.ly/fUFIMX”  (free registration required)

…. Rebecca Ghani investigates the long and sometimes bizarre tradition of self-experimenting doctors.

Self experimentation throws up problems around practicality, accuracy, reliability, and ethics. ….. And why do this when there’s an agreed medical and ethical protocol for clinical trials?

But delve a little deeper and …….

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The debate continues on whether organ donors should be paid.  The Baltimore Sun has a pro/con article:  The consequences of a donor kidney market

Should you be paid to part with a kidney?

It's an unseemly question, but it's one that medical professionals have been grappling with as the waiting list for kidneys gets longer, supply of the organs stagnates and other solutions fall short.  …….

Read on for two views on this topic. …….

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New York Times article by Paula Span:  Aging Without Children

…….How childless adults should approach their later years is a question that surfaces with some frequency among readers and commenters here. It’s true, as many attest, that being a parent doesn’t guarantee elder care. But it’s also true that the bulk of America’s old people are, in fact, cared for primarily by relatives: spouses first, then adult children.

“Children are a good insurance policy,” said Merril Silverstein, a prominent gerontologist at the University of Southern California. “In some other countries, that’s why people have children. Here, though it’s less certain, it’s still a pretty good bet.”  ……

It shouldn’t be that way, argued Debra Umberson, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, who has written about childlessness and parenthood: “We shouldn’t have to have kids who work for us for free so we don’t have to go to a nursing home.” ………………

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A really nice instructional post on the Etsy Blog written by julieincharge: How-Tuesday: Make a Quilt Label

As anyone who has ever stitched, admired, or snuggled with a quilt knows, quilting has a history steeped in resourcefulness, storytelling, community, and warmth. In honor of National Quilting Month, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Amy Milne, the director of the Alliance for American Quilts, has penned a how-to project and a call for the importance of labeling quilts (and artworks of all kinds) for the sake of staking a spot in handmade history and taking pride and authorship in your craft. Do you have a quilt that holds a special spot in your heart or family history? Be sure to share your story in the comments below. ………..