Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. 

Laika,  Laika's MedLibLog, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

Welcome to the Grand Rounds, the weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. I am pleased to host the Grand Rounds for the second time. The first time, 2 years ago, was theme-less, but during the round we took a trip around the library. Because, for those who don’t know me, after years of biomedical research I became a medical librarian. This also explains my choice for the current theme:. ………….

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Margaret Polaneczky, MD, TBTAB, explains Emergency Contraception is NOT an Abortifacent

When patients ask me how emergency contraception prevents pregnancy, I tell them that it’s primary mechanism is to delay ovulation (release of an unfertilized egg from the ovary).  There is no evidence that the EC aborts or prevents implantation of an already fertilized egg.

The efficacy of EC depends on where you are in your menstrual cycle when you have unprotected sex. …..

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H/T to @MtnMD for the link to the NY Times visual guide to the euro debt crisis:  It’s All Connected: An Overview of the Euro Crisis (interactive visual guide).

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H/T to @MedicalNews for the link to CNN article by Elizabeth Landau: When your cancer nurse has cancer, too

When new patients worry they don't know how they'll get through breast cancer, Cindy Davis puts her hand on theirs and says, "I know, but I want to tell you, I truly know, because I went through this two years ago."

"Their eyes light up and they go, 'Whoa. Really?'" says Davis, 54. "Suddenly, I'm a human being. I'm not just the nurse." ……….

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Check out this NY Times piece by Jane Rosett, an artist and a brain injury patient at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital:  Starting Again After a Brain Injury

“WANT a piece of gum, Jane?” asked my friend Andrée.
“What?” I asked her.
“Gum!”
I didn’t know what she was talking about.
“It’s Trident.”
It was delicious.
That evening, I told my friend David about my day’s big discovery. “It’s called gum and you chew it and it’s fun and there’s this one kind that will let me blow bubbles!”
“Yes, it’s called bubble gum, Jane,” he told me, patiently. …………..

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H/T to @ctsinclair for the LifeHacker piece:  Carve and Preserve the Ultimate Pumpkin

Halloween is just around the corner; it's the perfect time to brush up on your pumpkin carving skills and learn how to make sure your masterpiece looks as good for the trick-or-treaters as it did the day you carved it……...

Here’s mine from last year post on Safe Pumpkin Carving