Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links removed (except to my own posts) as many no longer active.


Better Health is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s myth buster’s edition here.

As regular readers of the Better Health blog already know, I am opposed to health misinformation. In fact, I started this very blog because of my disappointment with the sheer volume of false claims, misleading stories, and pseudoscience actively promoted to patients.

It was my hope that gathering together key medical blogger “voices of reason” would promote health sanity on Google. You could argue that we’re tilting at windmills, but tilt we must – and I’m proud to say that our membership now includes contributions from the CDC, the American College of Physicians, Harvard Health publications, Diario Medico (Spain’s premier MD website) and over 100 independent bloggers who are standing with us in an attempt to provide smart health commentary to patients and providers alike.

And with that, let us begin our terrific Grand Rounds tradition (now in its eighth year – which in blog years is about 120) of highlighting this week’s best of the medical blogosphere… (And yes, that’s me with Mythbuster’s TV host Adam Savage, circa 2009).………….

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H/T to @MtnMD and @drmlb for the link to this:  Healing power of poetry which features the poem "Lumpectomy" by Joan Baranow

………Below is Joan’s poem.
Lumpectomy
by Joan Baranow
The moon is a little dented tonight
on the right side
where an arm would be
pressing,
and that’s natural
to the moon
as well as certain situations—………….

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A heart warming story by MSNBC written by Linda Carroll:  Organ donor's family meet the man their father saved

……….“When we got the letter from the donor’s family, my wife and I just sat there and cried, because I didn’t expect it,” Watson, who received a life-saving heart, liver and kidney transplant, told TODAY. “I didn’t expect it to impact me as much as it did. But it was just emotional realizing that this person gave the last gift to me that he could, and it saved my life.”

Read the letter: Click here to read the Jessica Lyngaas's letter to the Watsons

Organ recipients aren’t supposed to contact the families of donors - those are the rules.

But on rare occasions, when the donor family reaches out as Jessica Lyngaas did and the recipient is willing, institutions can give way. ……

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Check out Dr. Wes’s post:   Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

They sat anxiously waiting for their loved one to enter the holding area after the procedure, one nervously clutching her purse, another today's paper, and a third, her cellphone. The air was tense as they awaited the news of how the procedure went. All the preparation, the concern, and the questioning come down to this moment when they learn if they made the right decision to go forward with the procedure. Will there be elation or despair?

So of course they want to videotape the moment.

The door opened, there was their loved one, looking no worse for wear, followed by the doctor. As he came forth to tell them the good news, the cellphone video recorder captured the discussion, ….. The doctor was caught completely off-guard.

In this case, the news was happy. All went well. But what should happen if the news weren't so good or even devastating? …….

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Another nice piece from @jordangrumet who blogs at In My Humble Opinion: I Could

Adapted from the poem "I Could"
Cook County hospital 1998
Breast center
Who's next?

He calls to the residents, as if he is a bank teller waiting to accept his next deposit. He walks from room to room with the medical students trailing behind. He enters the cubicle without taking the time to introduce himself. He touches breast tissue with precision and tenderness. Yet to put his arm around the shoulder of a suffering patient would be considered to intimate.  …….

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An article in the Chron.com by Melanie Warner Spencer:  Modernism emerges in quilting world

……….I believe I’ve discovered a quilting genre that appeals to my personal aesthetic.

The fast-growing modern quilt movement is inspired by modern art and architecture.

Modern quilters embrace the tenets of modernism, including simplicity, minimalism, clean lines, the use of negative space, experimentation and new ways of looking at old ideas……

Shout Outs

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

ZDoggMD is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s Funny Medical Stuff  edition here.

We are in orbit around a remote County emergency department. My crew of young interns is greener than a vat of Vulcan hemoglobin, and being of the Millennial generation they insist on bringing their stuffed Tribbles to work with them. …..

n the midst of this galactic chaos, Starfleet Command has asked us to host the 8th anniversary edition of medical bloggers’ Grand Rounds. So the great medical bloggers from around the galaxy have kindly contributed their bits and bytes, included below with my own two cents thrown in. Thanks to longtime Borg plastic surgeon Dr. Ramona Bates for hosting the last Grand Rounds; the next will be hosted by those crazy Klingons over at The Healthcare Economist on October 11th, so make sure to boldly go where no…awwww, never mind.

And Now: Grand Rounds Vol. 8 No. 1 ………….

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Dr. Charles is “Calling for Entries in the 2011 Charles Prize for Poetry Contest.”

Announcing the second annual Poetry Contest!

An award will be given to the writer who submits for consideration the most outstanding poem within the realm of health, science, or medicine. ……….

The contest began Wednesday August 31st and ends September 31st, 2011. The winners will be chosen shortly thereafter by an elite group of 8 judges (other doctors, friends with literary training, and select bloggers).  The contest is open to everyone.

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Another thought post by InWhiteInk:  Three Years

My stomach lurched when I saw him.
He was leaning against a brick building, his fingertips gripping the walls as if they alone were holding him upright. His head swiveled back and forth in animated conversation.
He was standing alone.
He looked exactly the same as he did before I left Seattle for New York: Matted hair, unwashed skin, lopsided smile.

The post prompted Vijay (scanman) to tell us of  This American Life episode (Act Three:  The Call of the Great Outdoors)

Every week, Chelsea Merz has lunch with a homeless man named Matthew, in the same restaurant. Matthew's been on the street for seven years, but once or twice a year, he housesits for a friend. She talked to him after he was housesitting for 16 days, on the day he went back out on the street. This story is part of a larger project Chelsea is putting together, with help from Jay Allison, the Cape and Island NPR stations, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (8 minutes)

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I love this T-shirt!  H/T to ACP Internist who writes (photo credit) “Sean Khozin, MD, points out, this is the shirt you want to wear if you ever need CPR.”  

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H/T to @SeattleMamaDoc for tweeting a link to her friend Shelly’s beautiful post on how chemo is like being a fruit fly: I'm nothing but a fruitfly

……….For some reason, this insect lifecycle (of quiet incubation, then, a torrent of energetic, soaring, in-your-face life!, then death, and repeat) reminded me of my own two-week chemo cycle. As I'll explain now, starting with the "death" phase, and moving toward the "hatch". ………….

Then, repeat. Death, egg sacs. Hatching. Glorious flight. …………..

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H/T to @precordialthump for the link to the NY Times Think Like a Doctor: Hiccups Solved!

On Monday I challenged Well readers to figure out a medical mystery involving a middle-aged man with persistent hiccups……..

The correct diagnosis is …pulmonary embolus.

The first two correct answers came within seconds of each other. And so, although we usually assign only one winner, in this case there will be two.

I asked one of the winners, Dr. Mark Lowell, an emergency room physician in Ann Arbor, Mich., how he figured out the case, and he laughed.

“I think everything is a P.E.” he told me, noting that he’d done research on pulmonary embolism. “What’s going to fool you the most? What’s the worst thing this could be in a healthy guy with something funny going on in his chest?”  …………

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H/T to the Needlprint blog:  Unfolding Stories: Culture and Tradition in American Quilts * 24 Sept - 31 Dec 2011 * Fenimore Art Museum, New York 

………..The Quilt pictured above comes with no further details in the press handout - but I personally think it is one of those quilts you need to see before you die - it is magnificent.

I agree and would love to attend the show at the Fenimore, but alas……

Shout Outs

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

Dr. Rich, Covert Rationing,  is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

While Grand Rounds is normally the highlight of everybody’s week here in the medical blogosphere, this time it’s different. …………..

But be assured that there is good stuff to follow. So, if you find yourself incapable of focusing your attention on Grand Rounds at the moment, simply bookmark this page, and return to it once your sense of soaring happiness returns (as it inevitably must) to a more normal state. Be assured that this week’s entries are timeless enough to outlive your ecstasy (an emotion which – alas! – to be effective, must always be transient).

So let us begin.  ………

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Dr. Charles is “Calling for Entries in the 2011 Charles Prize for Poetry Contest.”

Announcing the second annual Poetry Contest!

An award will be given to the writer who submits for consideration the most outstanding poem within the realm of health, science, or medicine. ……….

The contest began Wednesday August 31st and ends September 31st, 2011. The winners will be chosen shortly thereafter by an elite group of 8 judges (other doctors, friends with literary training, and select bloggers).  The contest is open to everyone.

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Fellow blogger Margaret Polaneczky, MD, TBTAM, is one of the authors of the American Academy of Pediatrics Textbook of Adolescent Healthcare!  She writes:

I wrote the chapter on contraception, but it’s just a teeny-tiny piece of this amazingly comprehensive text, available either in hardcopy or as an e-book from the AAP Bookstore.

Great work, Peggy!

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H/T to @doctorwes for tweeting this:  “One to bookmark: a website that manages medical expenses simplee.com”

The site looks like it would be very helpful in keeping track of medical expenses, especially from multiple sources (doctors, hospitals, labs, etc).  I plan to bookmark it and look at it closer.

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H/T to @hrana for the link to this Scientific American article by Larry Greenemeier:  Medical Mystery: How can some people hear their own eyeballs move?  (photo credit)

It sounds like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe tale of horror. A man becomes agitated by strange sounds only to find that they are emanating from inside his own body—his heart, his pulse, the very movement of his eyes in their sockets. Yet superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) is a very real affliction caused by a small hole in the bone covering part of the inner ear. Such a breach results in distortion of hearing and, often, impaired balance.   …………….

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I stumbled upon a new-to-me quilting blog – A Quilting Life – by Sherri.  Here is a recent post: Quilt in a Day! (photo credit)

I wonder how many of us started quilting with Quilt in a Day quilts by Eleanor Burns.  I know I made about 8 quilts from her Double Irish Chain book before feeling confident enough to try other patterns. (I happened to get on an elevator with her at Spring Quilt Market, and  thanked her profusely for her inspiration during my quilting beginnings--she probably thought I was crazy; I kept going on and on about all the quilts I made from her patterns those first couple of years)!  Anyway, because of procrastination I needed to make a baby quilt in a day.  And I had just a jelly roll and yardage for backing.  ………….

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017-- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many are no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

The Schwartz Center is the host for this week’s  Grand Rounds.  You can read this week’s edition here (photo credit).

Welcome!

The theme of this week’s Grand Rounds is hot topics in healthcare communication. Since this is also the last issue of summer, I’m including photos from my summer vacation to Yellowstone National Park, a hotbed of geothermal activity. (Just for fun see if you can identify Yellowstone’s mascot, the American bison, hidden in one of the photos.)

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Dr Charles has announced the winner of The Charles Prize for Poetry, 2010.  There were over 125 poems entered.   I hope you will head over and read them.  Congratulations to the winners!

Winner:
Fireflies, by a medical resident
Runner Up:
Song for my Father, II, by Pal MD
Honorable Mentions:
TO SYLVIA, by Maria A. Basile, M.D.
The Harvest, by C.L. Wilson
If I Were Frida Kahlo, by Amanda Hempel

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Dr. Val, Better Health,  announced on twitter yesterday:

@drval Save the date: @kevinmd @doc_rob @drval live coverage of ADHD awareness on Ustream Thurs, (9.16.10) 12-2 ET. http://bit.ly/d4G67t

Hope you will join the group if you happen to be available.  The event is coverage of this forum:

Fact or Fiction: ADHD in America, A Capitol Hill Forum
Rayburn House Office Building Room B-338
Washington, District of Columbia
United States

To coincide with ADD/ADHD Awareness Week, join us for "Fact or Fiction: ADHD in America, a Capitol Hill Forum," a lunch and panel discussion which will dispel myths and shed light on the diagnosis, treatment and management of ADD/ADHD in people's everyday lives.

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ReachMD has a really nice audio program full of the history of prosthetic heart valves:   The 50th Anniversary of the First Prosthetic Heart Valve: 1960 to Today

On the 50th anniversary of the first successful prosthetic mitral valve replacement, how far has cardiac surgery come, and where are we headed? Tune in to hear Dr. Albert Starr, co-founder of the first artificial mitral valve,……, recounts his first foray into the field of valvular disease and the extraordinary process of inventing the first artificial mitral valve. …… What does Dr. Starr see as the "next big thing" in cardiac surgery? Dr. Janet Wright hosts.

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Perhaps I need to try designing a new hospital gown.  Not sure anyone would pay attention to my ideas as Cleveland Clinic has to Diane Von Furstenberg.  Apparently the Clinic has been working with the designer for three years and is now ready to try out the newly designed gown (photo credit)

  A possible issue I see with the gowns is the lack of snaps along the top of the sleeves.  Snaps along that shoulder seam make it easier to place the gown on patients with limited shoulder motion or large upper extremity casts/dressings.  It also makes the gown easier to remove/replace on patients in the OR.

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I love this!  It was shared by Jill of All Trades, MD in her post “Stray Cat”

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Dr Anonymous guest this week is Radio Rounds.   The show begins at 9 pm EST.

Upcoming shows:      
9/18: Saturday Nite
9/23: Follow-up school name change & value of alumni
9/30: EMS Newbie Podcast
10/7: Dana Lewis        

Replantation Sonnet

There lays the severed pale digit on ice

Atop the table, freshly draped in blue.

Here rests the clean hand with French nails so nice

The team calmly moves, there is much to do.

K-wires fix  jagged bone ends together.

Tiny arteries stitched, loupes magnify

Hair-fine suture, careful not to gather.

Tourniquet loosened to a rose colored high

Signal transporting cables, yes, the nerves

Repaired; not yet emitting clear signals.

Ribbons, not blue or red, but  white swerve

Into line, moving fingers into balls.

Wound edges, matching pinks, together mold

Into a ring which should have been of gold.

Still Grieving

Articulate bird croons
Dawning expectations.
Flowers greet hummingbirds,
Iridescent jewels.

Kindred longing.
My numbed optimism,
Primed quietly  --
Resisting.

Surplus tears,
Uncalled villains,
Whispering, ‘xploring
Yon zygoma.



***Still writing more poetry.  See what Dr. Charles started.

For My Mother

Acutely blocked coronary

Digitally exposed,

Finds groove

Halting.

Impeded journey

Keep limping, moving nowhere.

Obstructed, pulse?

Quick radiating

Sharp twangs

Underscore ventricular

Weeping

‘Xalting your zeal.

 

***I seem to have taken Dr. Charles poetry challenge to heart.  This is my third poem, but I won’t be submitting this one.  It is for my mother.

Residency Years Recalled

Peaceful slumber is broken

Quarter after midnight, 

Report that multiple crash

Survivors are being

Transported here and elsewhere.

Up, leaving behind the

Virtual for the real world

Waiting, coffee in hand,

Xpecting the worst injuries.

Your eyes watch the doors open,

Zooming, your focus sharpens.

 

 

***Another poem attempt for Dr. Charles.

Shout Outs

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

Mike, LITFL is the host for this week’s “killer” Grand Rounds.  You can read this week’s edition here.

It is with great honor that the Life in the Fast Lane team and the Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine host this weeks Grand Rounds Vol. 6 No. 45 on August 3rd 2010.

The theme for this edition is ‘Killer Posts‘. We asked the MedBlogosphere to trawl their blog archive and dive deep into the soul of their writing to find their best; most inspirational; clever; witty; well-researched; head-turning; gut-wrenching; magnificent; glorious requiem of a post…and they did! Furthermore, each author has chosen their preferred deadly Aussie critter, and we have coupled each blogger accordingly…

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In case you haven’t heard about the amazing rescue of @leighfazzina with help from her twitter friends last Tuesday, then you need to read her story in her own words:  Twitter Leads Rescue Efforts Fazzina Bike Crash

Twitter. Never underestimate its viral engaging power. Ever. Please, just don’t ever do it.

The power Twitter holds for instant viral communication is utterly amazing, and it helped me get rescued last night after I suffered a mountain bike crash in deep evening-lit woods that I was unfamiliar with.

Yes – that’s right. Thanks to the power of Twitter, I was rescued last night by the The Town of Farmington Fire Department (Connecticut) after suffering a serious mountain bike crash where I ended up off the beaten path alone in a wooded forest that was totally foreign to me. ……………

Listen to Dr. Anonymous’ interview of @DrJonathan who was involved in the rescue as one of Leigh’s twitter followers:  Doctor Anonymous: Dr. A Show 175: Twitter Saves Life.

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New York Times Health segment Patient Voices featured patients with scleroderma this past week:  Patient Voices: Scleroderma

A disease that causes widespread hardening of connective tissue, scleroderma can affect people in a host of different ways. From a stiffening of the skin to digestive and breathing difficulties, scleroderma’s impact can be varied and far-reaching. Here, six men and women speak about how scleroderma has affected them. (Join the discussion on the Well blog.)

One of the six is Erion Moore diagnosed after he noticed increasing problems playing basketball.  (photo credit)

 

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Dr Charles is hosting the first annual 2010 Charles Prize for Poetry.  Have you submitted one yet?

Open to everyone (patients, doctors, nurses, students, etc.). Limit 1 or 2 entries per person.

Poems should be related to experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter……

Contest closes August 31st.

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Medical Quack has written  UCLA Hand Transplant Program Announced – Research Study Program And Afflicted Patients Can Apply

Hand transplantation is still experimental. The UCLA Hand Transplantation Program is a research study that has been approved by UCLA's Institutional Review Board. …..

Eligibility Criteria for the UCLA Hand Transplantation Program
18-to-60 years of age
Good general health
Amputation not due to birth defect or cancer
Amputation of limb at the wrist or forearm
No serious infections such as hepatitis B or C or HIV

Patients who meet the basic eligibility requirements and wish to be considered for the UCLA Hand Transplantation Program should contact Dr. Kodi Azari, the Surgical Director of the Hand Transplantation Program at (310) 825-1745, for an initial evaluation.

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Yesterday, there was a very nice episode of the Diane Rehm show on Raising Awareness About Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. and one of the most expensive to treat. Each year, more than 60,000 new cases are discovered and 14,000 Americans die from the disease. Guest host Susan Page and guests look at efforts to spread the word about bladder cancer.

Guests

Sandra Steingraber:  biologist, author and bladder cancer survivor. She wrote "Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment."

Dr. Mark Schoenberg:  director of urologic oncology, The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Diane Zipursky Quale:  president and co-founder, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network.

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One of our fellow physician bloggers is in Uganda on a medical mission trip.  She has met a young man with elephantitis who needs help:

I met a 25 year old man named Jaffeer today. His right leg is diseased with elephantitis. ……. he is in constant pain 24/7.
He needs hospitalization in Kampala. He needs amputation. He needs a prosthetic leg.
This all requires money.
If you have always wanted to help, but didn't know how, now is the chance. …….

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Dr Anonymous’ BTR show will be Pre-Med Student Erin Breedlove.  

Upcoming shows (9pm ET)

8/12: Pre-Med Student @InsaneMo
8/19: 4th Year Med Student @DrJonathan
8/26: Dr. A Show 3rd Anniversary

Something Blue, Something New…

It’s two in the morning,  the end of summer.
I greet you now, “How can I make you better?”
Your hand is cold, your face stained with tears,
Your voice trembles, you express your fears.

You tell me about Gina, Cathy, Brenda Lee
There were fifteen of you dressed splendidly.
Mimosas, margaritas; much more than a thimble
Partaken as you danced to the music, so nimble.

You tell me of the gold strap, bejeweled
Holding your shoe to your foot so tanned
As you stepped from the sidewalk.
Now you sob, unable to talk.

I clean blood, a dark red path away.
A sterile blue paper drape, I lay
Across your upper face
Tiny stitches pull your skin into place.

You tell me of your wedding dress
As your future husband caresses
Your hand, “It’s all right
Our future is bright.”



****My attempt at poetry as per Dr. Charles request.

Hymn of Skin

Updated 3/2017 -- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one.


In the March 3, 2010 issue of JAMA, there is a poem by Sarah Wells called “Hymn of Skin.”  While I enjoyed the whole poem, my favorite part is:

Plastic surgeon of the heavens, how I delight
in a furrowed brow, crow's feet, age spots—
wrinkle me up a dozen times to show I lived
hard, good, funny—after all beauty, being what it is,
is only skin deep—may my soul seep through
dry scales of later hands, resting tranquil in my lap.
O omniscient dermatologist, what ingenuity,
past hurts evident in scrapes and scars—
a clumsy stumble down uneven concrete stairs,
knees and ankle raw and dripping; pockmarked cheeks
from teenage zits—all healed, in the end, but not forgotten.
How often we need reminders of where we’ve been.

Haikus

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one.

It seems I inspired T, Notes of an Anesthesioboist, recently to write a beautiful Haiku.   I was encouraged by Dr Rob, Musings of a Distractible Mind, who is holding a contest.   Hers and mine are based on our professions.  I’d like to encourage you all to do the same.  No contest, just a challenge similar to the Six Word Memoir.

Haiku #1

Vase broken, skin cut
Glue repairs grandma's treasures
Blue vase, baby's cheek

Haiku #2
Too big , too small, sad
Cut, sew, reduce, augment, lift
Happy, happy girls