Links of Interest

Updated 3/2017-- all links removed as many no longer active.

These links are of interest to me and perhaps will be to you.

Today is  @jordangrumet’s birthday.  Did you know he has published a book of his poetry?  I have my copy which I am enjoying.  Read his post on how to obtain your copy.

Via @FauquierENT who tweeted this:  “Creative Ways to Wear a Scarf for Patients with a Trach or Ugly Neck Scar http://bit.ly/NfdmSG”   Not all the 25 ways shown in the video would actually work for patients with trach but enough of them do.  All of them would work for the rest of us who might just want to know more than one way to wear a scarf.  Check it out.

Have you read @joannacannon’s post  “Watch Out For The Normal People”?   If not, then I recommend you do so.  It is wonderful.

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017--all links removed as many no longer active.

Dr. Rob (@doc_rob), More Musings (of a Distractible Kind), is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s Grand Rounds Vol 8 No 25: Super Tuesday Edition here.

Welcome to grand rounds, the best around the world of medical blogging! 

For those expecting a silly recitation of today’s posts in rhyme, this post will let you down.  But don’t be sad, as I have provided with an alternate version of grand rounds on my other blog, Llamaricks, which (if you hadn’t guessed) is not quite as dedicated to the serious side of things. 

Since today is “Super Tuesday” ……

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Check out Doctor David’s (@david65) blog for as he put it on twitter:  the “story I won't forget. Watch the video -- the look on my patient's face says it all.”  The post:  Music Can Heal

Well, maybe music can't cure cancer, but it can certainly heal the spirit.
Drew Seeley released a new song today that he wrote for my patient.
Watch the video here……

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H/T to @tbtam who tweeted this: “ The Before. Sad, beautifully written , perfectly told. We docs have all been there. . jama.ama-assn.org/content/307/9/… (Need JAMA subscript).  The link is to an essay by Jennifer Frank, MD:  The Before

This is the before. A moment suspended like a bubble floating on a warm summer breeze gently but inevitably toward the ground. I feel the pop coming, an implosion of the very center of your life. Anticipating what this moment would hold, I nevertheless hoped for something different. To be able to eagerly dial your number and shout out the good news to you in a breathless rush. It's not what we thought. It's not cancer.

Instead I take a deep breath, pressing each number slowly, cautiously, drawing out the moment before the burst…………….

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Go read Elaine’s (was @medicallessons, now @elaineschattner) new post:  Harsh Words, and Women’s Health at Risk

I’ll open with a confession –

Women’s health has never really been at the heart of ML. Your author has, his­tor­i­cally, rel­e­gated sub­jects like normal men­stru­ation, healthy preg­nancy and repro­duction and natural menopause to her gyne­col­ogist friends. Sure, I learned about the facts of life. I even studied them in med school and answered ques­tions, some cor­rectly, along the way. By now, I’ve lived through these real life-​​phases directly. But these topics never drew me. That’s changed now.

Women’s care – and lives, in effect – are jeop­ar­dized on three fronts:……………..

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017--photos and all links removed as many no longer active. 

Paul Ware, Life with Huntington's, is (suppose to be) the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

Next week’s host is Dr. Rob (@doc_rob): What’s Grand and Round and Comes in an RSS Feed?

……To submit your GR post for next week’s GR, fill out the attached submission form. I must have submissions in before Sunday, March 4th at 6 PM EST……

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H/T to @jilltomlinson who asks.

Was this 27yo man's life lost in ill-conceived race to perform "World 1st" surgery? bit.ly/x2bGEJ #retrospectoscope

The link is to this Mai lOnline article: Man, 27, who had world's first quadruple limb transplant dies days after operation.

A 27-year-old Turkish man who underwent the world's first would-be quadruple limb transplant died yesterday, hours after the limbs were removed due to metabolic failure, the hospital said…….

I thought it was too risky when I first heard about the transplant prior to them having to later remove the limbs. We are certainly pushing the limits with transplants these days with double hand, face, multiple organ, etc.

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From Letters of Notes a letter that gives a glimpse of breast Cancer in 1855. This woman had surgery with no pain meds: 'Deep Sickness Seized Me"

In September of 1855, Lucy Thurston — a 60-year-old missionary who had been living in Hawaii with her husband since 1820 — underwent a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Incredibly, she somehow endured the operation wide-awake, without any form of anaesthetic. She wrote the following letter to her daughter a month later and described the unimaginably harrowing experience.

The procedure was a success. Lucy Thurston lived for another 21 years………………

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From @Skepticscalpel comes a post with his take on the survey in the Archives of Surgery: Surgeons and alcohol abuse.

“Prevalence of alcohol use disorders among American surgeons” appeared in the February, 2012 issue of Archives of Surgery.

A survey of 7197 surgeons, all members of the American College of Surgeons [ACS], had a 28.7% response rate and revealed that 15.4% had scores on an alcohol use assessment test that indicated abuse of or dependence on alcohol. This is consistent with the rate of such alcohol problems in the general public…………….

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VIDEO: Kyle Dyer, 9NEWS anchor, interviews with the Denver Post

Channel 9 news morning anchor Kyle Dyer talked to the Denver Post on Wednesday, February 23, 2012, about the injuries she sustained from a dog bite and her road to recovery.……. Video by Mahala Gaylord

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H/T to @impactednurse ‏for this tweet:  “Very cool. Federico Carbajal's anatomical sculptures made with galvanized wire: bit.ly/yRSvFk”

Shout Outs

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

Dr. Jen Dyer, Endogoddess, is hosting this week’s Grand Rounds.   You can read this week’s edition here.

I am a total news junkie and always have been (which is probably why I started out college as a journalism major before deciding that I wanted to be a doctor). So, this week's edition of Grand Rounds features the news themes of the prior week and their relationship to health: politics, football fever, the power of facebook, red heart disease awareness, and the impact of pink. ...….

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Head’s up:  @drjohnm is asking for posts for next week’s edition of Grand Rounds which he will be hosting.  Here’s his tweet:

Dear Med Bloggers: Please send me your posts for the Valentine's day version of @grandrounds http://ow.ly/8Xmze

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Updated 3/2017--photos and all links removed as many no longer active. 

Thank you @tbtam  for the information in your post:  Alternatives to Komen for Channeling Your Dollars & Energy to Fight Breast Cancer:

One option, of course, is to give to Planned Parenthood, The other option is to donate to one of the other charities on the front lines in the battle against breast cancer. Komen, after all, is not the only game in town.

Here are a few other places where your dollars will be put to good use fighting breast cancer. All of the following groups get high ratings from the American Institute of Philanthroy and/or Charity Navigator-……..

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White Coat is attempting to shine light on the issue of Amanda Trujillo: 

I finally took the time to read some other blogs today. One of the issues that I found disturbing was the case of Amanda Trujillo…………….

I’ve tweeted to Amanda to contact me …..

I’ll request the patient’s permission for release of the patient’s medical records from the hospital. ….

And I’ll get the name of the surgeon who allegedly does not take the legal doctrine of informed consent too seriously and who allegedly uses temper tantrums as a means to bully people into submission. Maybe we can look into his background a little. If he did have a “tantrum” in a patient care area, has the hospital investigated him for his conduct?

Everything will be published here.

And if ends up that Amanda was wrong for what she did I’ll publish that as well.

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A New York Times article by Melissa Greene:  Wonder Dog

In May 1999, Donnie Kanter Winokur, 43, a writer and multimedia producer, and her husband, Rabbi Harvey Winokur, 49, beheld the son of their dreams, the child infertility denied them.  ……………..“Sometime after their 3rd birthdays, our wonderful fairy tale of adopting two Russian babies began to show cracks,” said Donnie Winokur,……….

For children with autism or behavior disorders, dogs were trained in “behavior disruption.” For children with seizure disorder or diabetes or respiratory issues, dogs were trained to alert the parents at the onset of an episode, and there have been a few able to predict the medical incidents 6 to 24 hours in advance. (How they do this is something of a mystery.)…………..

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Dogs are so cool! in my humble opinion.  There’s the above story and then there’s this one I heard tonight on ABC Evening News which made me think of my three dogs who died of cancer.  I actually called a drug company way back when to see if she qualified for a drug trial.  There was no registry then.  Oh well.  Here’s the story:  Canine Cancer Studies Yield Human Insights

Some of the most promising insights into cancer are coming from pet dogs thanks to emerging studies exploring remarkable biological similarities between man and his best friend.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs. Every year, millions of dogs develop lymphomas and malignancies of the bones, blood vessels, skin and breast……………….

Jack Sevey Jr. created the website MyCancerPet.com in January 2011 after his 5-year-old boxer Bull died from T-cell lymphoma. Sevey wanted to create an online community for fellow owners of cancer-stricken pets and also steer them to helpful resources. Those include lists of clinical trials compiled by several organizations: the AKC Canine Health Foundation, Animal Clinical Investigation, the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research, the Morris Animal Foundation and the Veterinary Cancer Society……………..

Shout Outs

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


My thanks to @jordangrumet for this tweet.  It gave me the motivation I needed to sit down and write.  I have lacked it lately, unsure where my blog is headed with the job transition, not wanting to lose contact with my fellow bloggers.  So thanks, Jordan. 

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Glass Hospital is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds.  You can read this week’s edition here.

Welcome to Grand Rounds, where writers, readers, and bloggers send in their best stuff on a weekly basis to share, cross-pollinate, and build new audiences.

Tip of the hat to Grand Rounds co-creator Nick Genes, MD, PhD, an ER doc in NYC who knows a thing or two about blogging, tweeting and now Tumblr.

a timeless and inspiring read...

The theme of this week’s Grand Rounds is “Finding Meaning in Medicine,” with full attribution to Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, author of the masterful book Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal.  …………..

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H/T to @medicallessons who tweeted about this very unusual medical case in the NEJM:  Disappearance of a Breast Prosthesis during Pilates (includes images)

A 59-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer who underwent bilateral mastectomy and placement of breast prostheses presented for evaluation, reporting that her “body swallowed one of the implants” during a Pilates stretching exercise ….

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Another plastic procedure gone awry documented in a NEJM case report (h/t to @Neil_Mehta):  Blindness after Fat Injections

A 32-year-old man presented with vision loss in the left eye. one week earlier, while under local anesthesia, he had had an autologous fat injection into his forehead for correction of glabellar frown lines. The patient reported that while he was receiving the injection, he felt a sudden, severe periocular pain and had complete vision loss in his left eye. …..

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I found out via a Christmas card I received last week that a classmate from medical school was diagnosed with early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type last December.  He began writing a blog to chronicle his journey as he progresses towards Alzheimer's disease:  organicgreendoctor. 

He was a Family Practice doc before he retired.  He was/is a super nice guy.

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TBTAM has finally (smile) gotten around to giving us a list recommended NYC Restaurants

Home cooking is what I do best. And yet, the most frequent e-mail request I get from readers, friends and family is – “Where should we eat when we come to New York?”  And so, after years of wracking my brain for recommendations, I decided to create a list here of the places I go to and like. Some I’ve reviewed here on the blog – Most I have not (even though I have dozens of pics  and the best of intentions). But let me be clear – I am not a restaurant connoisseur. I’m just an ordinary New Yorker who knows what she likes. …..

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I never get around to reading all the books recommended to me, but still…  Here’s a list from Seattle Times reviewers:  32 of the year's best books

………Here are the results — 32 books, 21 fiction (who says the novel is dead!?), 11 nonfiction. Top vote getters were three novels, "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes, "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides and "Ed King" by David Guterson, and Erik Larson's work of nonfiction, "In the Garden of Beasts." ……..

Shout Outs

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

Afternoon Nap Society is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

………….This week, Grand Rounds is mine, and in selecting blog posts, I evaluated submissions based on their topicality, writing style, and personal appeal. What I look for in a blog as an ePatient may differ from what a physician or even another ePatient looks for; however, the goal of Grand Rounds is to foster dialogue, and more and more we are learning that in order for a healthcare dialogue to be truly effective, it must include the patient perspective. As a result, Sean Ahrens, an ePatient and software designer who is building Chronology, an online network on which patients with Crohn's and Colitis may connect and learn from one another, opens this week's session….….

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In the current JAMA, a thoughtful commentary article by Traber Davis Giardina, MA, MSW and Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH:  Patient's direct access to test results - pros and cons. (subscription necessary for full access)

In the outpatient setting, between 8% and 26% of abnormal test results, including those suspicious for malignancy, are not followed up in a timely manner. Despite the use of electronic health records (EHRs) to facilitate communication of test results, follow-up remains a significant safety challenge. In an effort to mitigate delays, some systems have adopted a time-delayed direct notification of test results to patients (ie, releasing them after 3 to 7 days to allow physicians to review them).

On September 14, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services jointly with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office for Civil Rights proposed a rule allowing patients to access test results directly from the laboratory by request (paper or electronic).  .……….

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For those of you like me trying to follow the face transplant recipients and procedures progress, CBC News recently had an update on one of them:  Conn. woman mauled by chimp praised for new face

…….."I've had people tell me I'm beautiful," Nash said in the interview that aired Monday. "And they were not telling me I was beautiful before."
Nash said she was cheered by a simple "hello" from a child while she was shopping recently.
"That didn't happen before," she said. "It was nice. The little girl was saying 'hi' to me. ... I'm not scaring anybody." ……

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This article from Science Daily caught my eye and I look forward to when it might be possible in humans:  Cleft Lip Corrected Genetically in Mouse Model

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College used genetic methods to successfully repair cleft lips in mice embryos specially engineered for the study of cleft lip and cleft palate. The research breakthrough may show the way to prevent or treat the conditions in humans. ...…….

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H/T to @medicallessons for this tweet “Is a Ban on Drinking Water Hours Before Surgery Necessary? (maybe not) -- ttp://nyti.ms/uTAQgl”  The link is to a New York Times Q & A article by C. Claiborne Ray:  Cool, Clear Water

Q. Is it really necessary to prevent patients from drinking water for many hours before surgery?

A. The well-known rule that a preoperative patient should have “nothing by mouth after midnight” was not based on scientific evidence, and many medical organizations now have more flexible guidelines. For example, American Society of Anesthesiologists guidelines generally permit clear liquids until two hours before surgery. .…….

Be sure you ask your surgeon and anesthesiologist what the rule is for you as the above is for healthy individuals.  It may vary depending on your set of health problems and the surgery you are scheduled to have.

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I love watching my dog shake water off. 

H/T to @DrVes for the link to this NPR story by Robert Krulwich:  Shake It! How Dogs, Cats, Even Hummingbirds Keep Dry (photos, including the one below, and video)

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The Alliance for American Quilts received 119 quilts for it’s 2011 "Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion" contest.   You can see all the quilts here. My entry was “Redwork Quilt” and is included in this week’s (Week Two --Mon, Nov. 21- Mon, Nov. 28) quilts being auctioned off on eBay.

All contest quilts will be auctioned via eBay starting on Monday, November 14, 2011 and ending December 12, 2011. All proceeds will support the AAQ and its projects. ….

Week THREE auction guide: Monday, November 28 - Monday, December 5  ……

New this year: "Alliances" contest artist's were offered the chance to record their artist's statements thanks to the generous services of AAQ Business member, VoiceQuilt, visit them at www.voicequilt.com.

Shout Outs

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


Amy Tenderich, Diabetes Mine blog, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

Welcome to Grand Rounds, Vol. 8, No. 9, the 2011 Thanksgiving edition of the weekly summary of the best health and medical blog posts on the web. Many thanks to the organizers at Get Better Health for inviting us to host!

In a world where major economies are imploding and a climate catastrophe seems impending, there is still much to be thankful for — especially in the arena of health and medicine, where technology is empowering a revolution of sorts in hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, and in patients’ everyday lives.

What We’re Collectively Thankful for, from all around the med-blogosphere:

Last week’s host, Alvaro Fernandez at Sharp Brains, is thankful that everyone contributing to and reading Grand Rounds has a human brain (no bots, we hope!), and thankful that the human brain is not fully pre-wired.  .….

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H/T to @gastromom  for the link to this Huffington Post article by Dr. Rebecca Palacios:  Learning to Cook and Cooking to Learn

The holidays offer wonderful opportunities to create learning experiences for children that center around cooking. These experiences are especially powerful because they involve all of the senses: smelling, tasting, touching, hearing, and seeing -- which is one reason that memories created in the kitchen can last a lifetime! With a little thought and preparation, you can use this time to build important understandings and skills in literacy, mathematics, science, health, and even art. ……….

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H/T to @doctorwes for alerting me to this WSJ article: Doctor Revolt Shakes Disability Program.  His link required a subscription for full access, but @MDBuyline sent me a tweet with a link to full article.  I’m still thinking about it (as this is the work I am now doing), but my initial reaction is that the article is selectively biased.  The graphics with the article are impress though – take this one for example (check out the interactive map here)

See how the percentage of residents ages 18 to 64 receiving disability benefits has changed in each state since 2001.

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H/T to @sandnsurf for this tweet with link:  “Cool... Free e-book: Oh Doctor, The Places You Will Go... Precious Bodily Fluids t.co/FomfzD2r” 

  …….a parody of Dr Seuss' classic Oh, the Places You'll Go! It is a candid look at the journey people make in order to become doctors. I found it charming. Go download it. .…….

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How about a book review by @medicallessons:  ‘Cutting For Stone,’ and Considering the Experience of Practicing Medicine

A short note on Cutting for Stone, a novel I’ve just read by Dr. Abraham Verghese. He’s an expert clin­ician and pro­fessor at Stanford. The author uses rich lan­guage to detail aspects of Ethiopian history, med­icine and quirks of human nature. The book’s a bit long but a page-​​turner, like some lives, taking a strange and some­times unex­pected course.

For today I thought I’d mention one passage that haunts me. …….…….

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The Alliance for American Quilts received 119 quilts for it’s 2011 "Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion" contest.   You can see all the quilts here. My entry was “Redwork Quilt” and is included in this week’s (Week Two --Mon, Nov. 21- Mon, Nov. 28) quilts being auctioned off on eBay.

All contest quilts will be auctioned via eBay starting on Monday, November 14, 2011 and ending December 12, 2011. All proceeds will support the AAQ and its projects. ….

Week TWO auction guide: Monday, November 21 - Monday, November 28 ……
New this year: "Alliances" contest artist's were offered the chance to record their artist's statements thanks to the generous services of AAQ Business member, VoiceQuilt, visit them at www.voicequilt.com.

Shout Outs

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


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

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Grand Rounds blog car­ni­val, the weekly edi­tion of what’s best in the health and med­ical blo­gos­phere. This week, twenty four blog­gers share data, insights, ques­tions, reflec­tions and more. Enjoy!

On Improv­ing Care

Dr. Robert Oren­stein at ACP Hos­pi­tal­ist: thor­oughly clean­ing patient’s rooms can dra­mat­i­cally reduce healthcare-acquired infec­tions (HAI). ….

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H/T to @SynapticSilence for the link to this NY Times article by Jo Craven McGinty about as he puts it “a kind of prolonged grief I doubt many of us, even those in the mental health profession, have considered” -- As 9/11 Remains Are Identified, Grief Is Renewed

On Nov. 19, 2001, Susan Ainbinder Hutchins received a call saying that her son, Kevin Colbert, who worked at an investment bank on the 89th floor of 2 World Trade Center, had been identified among the ground zero remains.
“I’m thinking, they found my son,” she said, “but …...

But the nightmare was not over. “The calls kept coming and coming and coming,” she said. For several years, at roughly two-month intervals, she was informed that another piece of her son had been identified.

“Nobody gets it,” she said. “They don’t understand why I’m stuck in such an awful place.”   ……….

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H/T to @hjluks who tweeted “DOCs... like to doodle during patient interactions? draw MD - iPad Application j.mp/vfU5lW #hcsm #thcsm @myen” 

I would use this app if I were still in practice!  I often sketched over the photos in brochures or attempted to draw my own.  It looks like most specialties are covered.  From the site:

About drawMD

Designed to improve patient understanding of medical problems, drawMD utilizes the iPad's unique interface to allow anyone to sketch, stamp, or type directly on detailed anatomic images. The included images are tailored to each specialty and provide the ability for doctors to communicate and explain treatment plans, including surgical procedures, as well as document these plans for patient records.

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Check out Dr Val’s post:   Don’t Fly Delta: Airline Runs Anti-Vaccine Videos Against Medical Advice

I’ve been following the recent Delta airlines flu vaccine kerfuffle with interest and now amazement. After running in-flight infomercials by a notorious anti-vaccine group (NVIC), the American Academy of Pediatrics alerted Delta to the faux pas with a letter from president Robert W. Block, M.D. I had assumed that Delta would be grateful for the head’s up, and would immediately remove the infomercials. Instead, they chose to ignore the letter, denying that they saw any harm in associating themselves with anti-vaccine activists. Despite the warning, they will continue to run the ads through the month of November…..

Which means that I will NOT be flying Delta in the foreseeable future and I hope you won’t either. When US physician organizations are flat out ignored by corporate executives, it leaves us with only one choice – to speak with our feet. Sadly, the bottom line may matter more to them than the health and safety of their passengers.

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You may sign a petition against Delta’s actions here. Or use the #DontFlyDelta hashtag on Twitter. …….

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Another nice piece from @jordangrumet who blogs at In My Humble Opinion: If I Die Young

It's funny how a few words, a phrase, or music can bring back buried memories.
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
The sharp knife of a short life, oh well
I've had just enough time
I heard this song on the radio this morning. A rush of memories flooded my brain in the form of the smiling face of a beautiful little girl.   …….

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The Alliance for American Quilts received 119 quilts for it’s 2011 "Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion" contest.   You can see all the quilts here. My entry was “Redwork Quilt” and is included in Week Two (Mon, Nov. 21- Mon, Nov. 28) quilts being auctioned off.

All contest quilts will be auctioned via eBay starting on Monday, November 14, 2011 and ending December 12, 2011. All proceeds will support the AAQ and its projects. ….

Week ONE auction guide: Monday, November 14 - Monday, November 21 ……
New this year: "Alliances" contest artist's were offered the chance to record their artist's statements thanks to the generous services of AAQ Business member, VoiceQuilt, visit them at www.voicequilt.com.

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/videos and all links removed (except to my own posts) as many no longer active.

David, Health Business Blog, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Grand Rounds blog carnival, the weekly roundup of medical blog posts!

The Blog That Ate Manhattan kicks us off with the Meaningful Use Song, surely the most antic entry I’ve ever hosted. Can’t beat the zippy refrain “I am the model user of an EMR that’s meaningful.” ………….

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Have you discovered Joanna Cannon’s blog yet? Here’s a nice post: Abor Vitae

The oak tree was worn and tired and sat in a field, where it waited to die.

“I have lived my life,” said the oak tree, “I have felt the seasons turn beneath my roots and I have watched the years unfold and spill themselves through my branches. Now it is time for me to move on.”

The other trees were distressed and pleaded with the oak tree to stay. ……

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bongi, other things amanzi, has a new post after a hiatus: physician, heal thyself

even doctors get sick, but there is often a difference.

i was rotating through orthopaedics and was on call that night. …... once i had finished operating i rushed through the change rooms to get back to casualties. while i was changing i heard the unmistakable sounds of someone throwing up in the toilet cubicle. quite soon the door opened and out came the orthopaedic registrar who was on call that night with me. he did not look good……….

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My friend Elizabeth, Methodical Madness, has a nice post: Fan Mail

I've had a handful of readers over the past couple of years e-mail me to ask me questions about pathology and advice about medicine but no one, until last Thursday, has ever prefaced their question as "Fan Mail." I was tickled pink. A first year medical student from a far away institution asked this, and kindly allowed me to answer in a post:

"My question for you is, are there times when you wished non-pathologist physicians remembered more about histology? What would you like them to know?"

The short answer is this: NOTHING. ……….

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H/T to @hrana for the link to the Wall Street Journal article by Robert Johnson: Plastic surgery is on the rise among older Americans

Mary Lou Ray decided at age 65 that she had seen enough of the person in her mirror.

"My life led up to this. I had been divorced for 13 years, my children were grown, and with the death of my mother—not to be unkind—I was finally free of criticism about things like dyeing my hair," she says.

So last year she spent $13,000 on a face lift and other cosmetic procedures that proved rejuvenating.

"I'm absolutely thrilled," says Ms. Ray, a real-estate agent in Roanoke, Va. "I think a lot of friends in my age bracket would like to try this, but they're afraid of getting that unnatural, yanked-up look. I don't have that; I still look like me." ……..

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H/T to @DrVes for the link to the Lancet article: Haemorrhagic herpes zoster 

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Check out this NPR article by Adam Cole: Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion   

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

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links removed as many no longer active.

Dr. Sumer, Sumer's Radiology Site, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

For people who are new to this concept "Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting Grand Rounds, and summarizing the best submissions for the week. The schedule for Grand Rounds is available at the Better Health Blog and at Blogborygmi.com. Both Dr. Val Jones and Dr. Nick Genes coordinate the schedule for Grand Rounds.” For people who are new to this concept "Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting Grand Rounds, and summarizing the best submissions for the week. The schedule for Grand Rounds is available at the Better Health Blog and at Blogborygmi.com. Both Dr. Val Jones and Dr. Nick Genes coordinate the schedule for Grand Rounds.” .............

My suggestion- we should all share each edition of grand rounds on our facebook pages as well as our blogs for more viewership. My thanks to all those who submitted to this edition and Grand Rounds Surely Rock. ………….

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H/T to @SeattleMamaDoc for tweeting about this NY Times Health article: Well Blog: Doctor and Patient: From Needle Stick to Hepatitis Cure

As doctors-in-training in the early 1990s, my friends and I became obsessed with the question of what we would do if we were pricked with an infected needle at work. We all had witnessed the inexorable, often painful march toward death of patients with hepatitis C and AIDS. We imagined the despair we would feel in that situation: the dashed hopes, the lost years of schooling and training. Many of us saw ourselves walking out of the hospital and not looking back. We couldn’t imagine throwing ourselves back into the fray.

We had not met Dr. Douglas Dieterich. …..

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I agree with @jordangrumet who tweeted: Bummer! on.wsj.com/ra3DTa The Vocal Cord Injury Affecting Adele

The Grammy-winning singer Adele has canceled a series of U.S. tour dates due to a vocal-cord hemorrhage.

As she wrote on her blog this week, she was first diagnosed with a hemorrhage in May, then rested and recovered. But recently, she was diagnosed with another hemorrhage. “My voice yet again went … it just switched off,” she wrote.

That sort of “instantaneous hoarseness” is typical of hemorrhages of the vocal cords, which are also called vocal folds, says Kenneth Altman, an associate professor of otolaryngology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. …..

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H/T to @doc_rob for the link to this “Great video about depression.” If you have depression, please, get help.

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This Reuters new articles reminds us that “Many cancer survivors struggle with trauma stress: study”

A cancer diagnosis can leave lasting psychological scars akin to those inflicted by war, with the impact in some cases lasting for years, U.S. researchers found in a study.
More than a decade after being told they had the disease, nearly four out of 10 cancer survivors said they were still plagued by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD ……………SOURCE: bit.ly/n1pJMg

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H/T to @GregSmithMD for the link to this “Beautiful post about things that heal.” -- Stop And Smell The Roses

Even though the title is cliche and many of us hear it from time to time, I am going to guess that the majority of us don't actually do it. I know I don't or at least I haven't in the past. ……….

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From @Berci. --- Picture of the Month: Left brain-right brain (photo credit)

This is one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen. I’m almost totally a left brain… What about you?

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Some of my nephew-in-law @eleonfreeman’s paintings will be included in the upcoming art exhibit at the Boswell-Mourot in Miami. Exhibit opening is November 5, 2011.

Including this lovely one: Treasure Reef" by Eric Leon Freeman (2011) Oil on Linen, 48" x 72"

Shout Outs

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

Jason Shafrin, PhD, Healthcare Economist, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

This is a great time to be the Healthcare Economist. Not only am I hosting Grand Rounds for the first time, but Wisconsin sports are enjoying a renaissance. The Milwaukee Brewers are in the NLCS, the Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl Champs and undefeated, and the Wisconsin Badgers also have not lost.

How does this relate to this week’s edition of Grand Rounds? I have no idea. But I know if you’ve made it this far, you might as well take a few more minutes to review the best medical posts on the blog-o-sphere during the past week. Enjoy! ………….

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The 2011 Charles Prize for Poetry Contest deadline for entries has passed. Now while we await the announcement of the winners I hope you will enjoy reading the many wonderful entries.

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TBTAM (@tbtam) has another nice blog post on mammograms: Mammograms – Reality Check

A well-written and balanced article on mammography from USA Today may help move the conversation about this screening test away from hype and a bit closer to reality. The title – “Mammogram is ‘terribly imperfect’, though recommended.” ...

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H/T to @DrMarkham and @doctorblogs for this BMJ article by Prof Joseph Ana on this horrifying practice: Breast flattening, ironing, straightening, and pounding: a new form of violence against girls and women

Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard about the cultural barbarism of breast flattening, a native attempt to delay the development of a girl’s breasts so that they are not “attractive” to men and boys before they are ready for marriage.

Just before a girl reaches puberty her mother will (sorry but please get yourself ready to soldier on with reading this sordid topic) pass a hot instrument, usually a hot wire into the victim’s breasts or pound the victim’s breast with a pestle without any form of anaesthesia or analgesic. …..

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Runawaydoc (@runawaydoc) is a “newbie blog / pediatrician in training” who recent blog post introduces us to “the man with the golden heart.”

……As a doctor, I regret to accept that our medical system is also hijacked into this dark world. Every doctor, every lab, every pharmacist wants to extract an extra rupee. The feel of the notes satisfy more than the contentment of the patient. …….

However, in one of those social networking portals I came across a man called “Morpheus”. I was jarred with his conviction to clean the dirty waters of medicine where doctors happily waddle in. He told me that healing profession has to be cleaned, somebody has to make a move, and somebody has to start it. At the end of the day the patient should not suffer. …..

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Did you catch Radio Rounds interview of ZDoggMD? If not, you can listen to it here: Slightly Funnier Than Placebo

This week features the hottest hip hop hospitalist in the nation, ZDoggMD. When not making videos, ZDogg is a hospital physician working at a Bay Area academic hospital. Along with some of his fellow physicians he moonlights in medical satire writing and producing his own videos and songs, claiming to be slightly funnier than placebo. This episode is about the man behind the name as we delve deeper into the mind of ZDoggMD.

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My friend Methodical Madness uses her recent Mothers in Medicine post to encourage donation of blood products: Blood Bank Halloween.

The Blood Bank always has some pretty interesting Halloween decorations. Last year they had gel blood dripping from the top of the main door. This year I was excited to see a bloody hand at the Blood Bank blood product distribution window. The window is kind of like a fast food restaurant window - only it opens bottom to top instead of sliding sideways. I imagine it was designed in the 1960's. This morning when I went to take a photo of it for this blog that was marinating in my head, I was upset to find it missing. I wandered into the blood bank.

"Where is that bloody hand decoration that was in the window?" …………

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H/T to @scanman for this tweet: Superb collection/selection >> RT @mankuthirai: The 50 Best Short Stories of All Time

The short story is sometimes an under-appreciated art form. Within the space of a few pages, an author must weave a story that’s compelling, create characters readers care about and drive the story to its ultimate conclusion — a feat that can be difficult to accomplish even with a great degree of savvy……….

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Thanks to @glevin1 who noticed this website on Google+ and know I’d appreciate it: LUKE Quilts. Luke’s website has three main sections – about, projects, and blog. His quilts are amazing! Check them out.

Shout Outs

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

Colorado Health Insurance Insider is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s  edition here.

Welcome to the Fall Colors Grand Rounds!  We have several excellent articles from around the healthcare blogosphere for you this week.  Enjoy!

HealthBlawg’s David Harlow recently attended Health 2.0 in San Francisco and provides us with an excellent summary post about the conference. ………….

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The 2011 Charles Prize for Poetry Contest deadline for entries has passed.  Now while we await the announcement of the winners I hope you will enjoy reading the many wonderful entries.

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H/T to @DrMarkham for her new blog “eating despite cancer.”   The latest post is “i'm on chemo and food doesn't taste right...what can I do?”

The taste of foods often changes for people undergoing chemotherapy. This doesn’t happen to everyone receiving chemotherapy as part of cancer treatment, but it certainly happens to a lot. I’ve seen it happen as early as the first dose of chemotherapy, and it’s become my practice to warn people about this side effect. …….

We aren’t sure why this side effect happens, but there is medical literature to suggest that changes in both the sense of smell and the sense of taste occur with various chemotherapy drugs. The sense of smell is heavily tied into our sense of taste, so an alteration in either can really mess things up……..

The most important rule is to just keep trying. You’ll find something that will work. …..

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H/T to @The_Radiologist  for this tweet:  Great R4 piece on antibiotic resistance by @Dr_Stuart was repeated last night. Sobering times ahead. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod… #medicine

The link will allow you to listen to the 30 minute program which is well worth the time.

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I love the idea of self-healing materials!  H/T to @krupali for the link to this BBC news article by Leila Battison:  Bio-inspired plastic self-heals

The development of self-healing materials has surged forward as scientists have taken inspiration from biological systems.

Researchers at the University of Illinois in the US have found a way to pump healing fluids around a material like the circulation of animal's blood.

Materials that could repair themselves as they crack would have uses in civil engineering and construction.  …….

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Another great T-shirt!  This one with great advice:

  Available here.

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From WebMD:  Slideshow: Surprising Ways Smoking Affects Your Looks and Life (photo credit).  This is the first slide of the series.  Can you pick out the smoker? Make your pick and go check out the rest.

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Threads Magazine website has a very nice video (wish I could embed it here, but can’t):  Teach Yourself to Sew 2: Two Great Seam Finishes.  One uses the product Seams Great, the other is the Hong Kong finish.  Burda Style has a nice tutorial on the Hong Kong Binding Seam Finish

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.

There were no takers for hosting this week’s Grand Rounds.  If you would like to be a future host:

… Send an email to Nick Genes (you can find his contact info at blogborygmi.com) and request to be considered as a future host. Include a link to your blog. Host bloggers must have been blogging regularly for at least 6 months, have a health theme, demonstrate good writing skills, professionalism, and respect for scientific medicine. If your blog meets those requirements (and is approved by Nick or Val) they’ll contact you via email to schedule your host date.

If you missed last week’s edition, then check it out.  Dr. Rich, Covert Rationing,  was the host. You can read last week’s edition here.

ZDoggMD will be hosting on September 27th. His theme will be Funny Medical Stuff but he will accept good submissions on almost any medical topic.  You can email submissions to him at zdoggmd (AT) gmail (DOT) com

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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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In case you missed it, I just want to point you to this lovely post by @doctorwes:  The Flywheel

(With apologies to Harry Chapin)

"Welcome to BA Cardiology Associates, young doctor, we're thrilled you've decided to join us. As you recall, we guarantee your salary for the first several years then when you're practice is established, your salary will be proportional to your productivity. Oh, and if you need anything, just let us know."

A child arrived just the other day. He came to the world in the usual way...

"I had the most amazing case today! His heart rate was so slow..."
"Doctor, we're impressed at how things are going."

He learned to walk while I was away...

"Thanks for helping out……

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Kim, Emergiblog, is the host of the latest edition of Change of Shift (September 2011)! You can find the schedule and the COS archives at Emergiblog. (photo credit)

Welcome to the September, 2011 edition of Change of Shift!

This is quite the eclectic selection of posts from across the nursing blogosphere, composed of those submitted for inclusion and those I found in my travels through the neighborhood.

Remember, submissions are always accepted for Change of Shift, there is never a deadline to meet, so don’t hesitate to submit a post at any time.

Let’s begin! …………………….

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H/T to @scanman for retweeting this “@JenniferAdaeze: I helped found a Journal of #NarrativeMedicine theintima.org follow @the_intima & spread the word :) #meded”. 

It will be interesting to follow The Intima, a Journal of Narrative Medicine.  There are sections for poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art inspired by medicine.  Check out this fictional story by Dana Gage about a medical student struggling with a dying child:  Nightwatch

Rane entered the room hesitantly; she didn’t want to enter at all; she had pleaded with the intern and then to the resident, who just shook his head and said it wasn’t up to him. The Chief Resident had ordered, had insisted upon it, that she see this particular child, work her up. …………

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H/T to @evidencematters who alerted me to this Guardian article by Patrick Barkham:  Nazis, needlework and my dad (photo credit)

Not many men belong to a stitching group, but Tony Casdagli picked up his enthusiasm for the craft from his father, who kept himself sane by fashioning subversive messages as a PoW  ………….

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 removed (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active.

Health 3.0 Blog  is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Grand Rounds. You can find the medical blogosphere’s best next week at Covert Rationing.

We’ve taken a different approach this week to organizing Grand Rounds. You can find all the submissions below in this post. But, we’ve also selected quotes from each blog and highlighted those on the main page. Consistent with our themes, we’ve also tagged all the posts related to health, happiness, design or innovation. You can search for these tags to see how each theme plays out. We’ve also added bits of commentary to some of the individual quotes and summaries - especially when we’ve read something recently that relates to the general topic or idea………

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I was aware of this new children’s book "Maggie Goes on a Diet" (I haven’t gotten to read it, but title makes me feel focus is wrong. Should be focused on eating healthy diet.), but @LindaP_MD’s tweet alerted me to a nice interview @drclaire did with @BridgetBlythe on @NECN about the book:  Talking to kids about weight, obesity

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Did you see the interview Albert Schweitzer (@SchweitzerASF) did with @docgurley?  --“The Addictive Power of Spending One’s Days Doing Something Worthwhile”: Five Questions for a Fellow with Jan Gurley, MD

Since 1979, ASF’s Lambaréné Schweitzer Fellows Program has selected senior U.S. medical students to serve clinical rotations as junior physicians at the iconic Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, Africa—the region’s primary source of health care since Dr. Albert Schweitzer founded it in 1913.

Jan Gurley, MD is one of those Fellows. ……….

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Check out the interview of @drkt at OnSurg.com:  Featured Surgeon, late summer 2011

First-year surgery resident Dr Katie has been sharing her educational experience online since undergraduate school. OnSurg is grateful for her participation in our Q & A:

What’s your story?

I first knew I wanted to be a doctor my senior year of high school (was going to go into Forensics from 7th-12th), and was told I’d never make it and that I’d change my mind. I knew what I wanted and wanted to prove people wrong at the same time. It wasn’t until the summer after my junior year that I actually had the chance to be in the hospital. When that time came, I knew that medicine was right for me.  ………….

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H/T to @DrSnit tweeting this:  “Monsters in the Dark by @chemo_babe bit.ly/reZDOi Parenting through cancer. "I don’t want to be the little boy whose mommy died.”   I hope you will go read the entire post.

…………….He grew earnest.
“But your heart will stop beating when you die. You can’t have love without a heart.”
“Love doesn’t just live in my heart. My love for you will continue on in your heart.”
Then he burst into tears and threw his arms around my neck.
“Mommy, I don’t want to be the little boy whose mommy died.”
I embraced him, stunned into silence. I looked for words of comfort. …………….

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H/T to @sandnsurf for finding and posting these “highly inappropriate adverts”:  High quality adverts (photo credit) 

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H/T to @BiteTheDust  for the link to this news article:   13 yr old designs breakthrough solar array based on Fibonacci sequence.

Plenty of us head into the woods to find inspiration. Aidan Dwyer, 13, went to the woods and had a eureka moment that could be a major breakthrough in solar panel design. ………

You can read Aidan’s award-winning essay here, which walks you through his experiment design and his results. But the short story is that his tree design generated much more electricity — especially during the winter solstice, when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. At that point, the tree design generated 50 percent more power, without any adjustments to its declination angle. …………..

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The International Quilt Festival Summer 2011 Newsletter has a very nice tutorial for making a Patchwork/Purse Tote (pdf).  (photo credit)

Shout Outs

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

I think I learned my lesson this time.  The first two times I hosted Grand Rounds many of the posts seemed to come from happy bloggers.  I think the lesson this time is don’t be a host when all the news is bad.  Maybe it’s the drought and heat wave in much of the U.S.  Or maybe using the words of Bill Clinton “It’s the economy, Stupid.”  For whatever the reason this week’s Grand Rounds is dominated by rants and whines from bloggers around the globe.  ………  To try to have some fun with emotions I decided to try to draw a sketch to give you an idea of the mood of the writer:

Dr Bates gets first position since she is hosting Grand Rounds next week.  She breaks the trend too in not being upset or angry.  She writes at Suture for a Living wondering How old is too old for cosmetic surgery?  Her answer?    ……….

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Interesting ethical question posed by the MedPage Today article by Mikaela Conley:  Harvesting Dead Girl's Eggs Raises Ethical Issues

An Israeli court has granted permission for family members to extract and freeze the eggs of its 17-year-old daughter, who died earlier this month in a car accident, according to the Israeli English-language website Haaretz.  ……..

"Ethically, the important issue is not whether the woman would have wanted children," said Rosamond Rhodes, director of bioethics education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. …..

Instead, Rhodes said the critical issue is whether Chen would have wanted her biological children to come to life after she was dead.  ……….

The comments are interesting, also.  Personally (remember I don’t have any children, unable to get pregnant), I don’t think it would be a good idea.  I lost my father when I was 8.  I can’t imagine being a mother-less child.

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H/T to @Skepticscalpel for the tweet  which linked to this NY Times Health article -- “Beautifully written by a patient’  --  Opinion: I Won’t Have the Stomach for This

I AM a ravenous, ungraceful eater. I have been compared to a dog and a wolf, and have not infrequently been reminded to chew. I am always the first to finish what’s on my plate, and ever since I was a child at my mother’s table, have perfected the art of stealthily helping myself to seconds before anyone else has even touched fork to frog leg. My husband and I have been known to spend our rent money on the tasting menu at Jean Georges, our savings on caviar or wagyu tartare. We plan our vacations around food — the province of China known for its chicken feet, the village in Turkey that grows the sweetest figs, the town in northwest France with the very best raclette.

So it was a jarring experience when, a few months ago, at 36 years old, I learned I had stomach cancer.   ……….

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H/T to @EvidenceMatters for the link to another article on food and a human’s relationship to it (as EM put it: Read it: it probably isn't what you think.)  by @fatnutritionist:  If only poor people understood nutrition.

It seems like some people are constantly wringing their hands about how poor people eat (to wit: badly.) And the most popularly proposed solution is to teach them (“them”) more about nutrition! Or educate them in general.……….

Here comes the part where I bust up that nice, warm bubble bath. ……..

Because getting enough to eat is always our first priority.  …………….

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A nice post from @DrJenGunter: What is a menstrual cup and why should I use one? (photo credit)

A menstrual cup is exactly what you think it is: a cup to catch menstrual fluid. The concept has been around since the 1930’s, but has recently become more popular. Some cups are made of rubber, but allergies to latex and other components of rubber are increasingly more common so the best option is a cup made of medical grade silicone, which is hypoallergenic………….

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An informative post from @drfiala, PSB - the Orlando plastic surgery blog:   New side-effects from Propecia? (photo credit)

For those users of Propecia - used for hair loss in men, and Proscar - used for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in men, here is a new concern raised by Health Canada, which is the Canadian version of the FDA.

Apparently, prescription drugs Propecia and Proscar seemed to be linked to rare cases of male breast cancer. ……….

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Isn’t this just an absolutely beautiful quilt?!!!  I don’t know much about it.  It was shared with me on Google+ by Alex Veronelli

 

Shout Outs

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

Dr. Deb Serani is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here (photo credit).

Grand Rounds is a weekly round up of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting - me this time around - and summarizes the submissions of the week.

As a music lover, I thought I'd give Grand Rounds a vintage vinyl feel. So please make sure your phonographs are ready to go. Thanks to Dr. Val Jones and Dr. Nick Genes for the invite.   ……….

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I had already read this MiM post by Cutter (surgery resident), Not just us anymore, before @MotherinMed tweeted

Perfect companion reading to last MiM post: Bringing Out the Mother in All of Us. (by @paulinechen) http://nyti.ms/rdrxia

She is so right. I don’t think it matters which order you read them in, but I go read both of them.

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H/T to @MotherinMed for tweeting the link to this NY Times op-ed piece written by Dr. Ezekiel Emanu: Shortchanging Cancer Patients

RIGHT now cancer care is being rationed in the United States.
Probably to their great disappointment, President Obama’s critics cannot blame this rationing on death panels or health care reform. Rather, it is caused by a severe shortage of important cancer drugs.
Of the 34 generic cancer drugs on the market, as of this month, 14 were in short supply. ……….

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H/T to @krupali and @paulinechen for the link to the Slate article by Meghan O'Rourke and Leeat Granek: How To Help Friends in Mourning -- Condolence notes? Casseroles? What our grief survey revealed. (bold emphasis is mind)

……….The most surprising aspect of the results is how basic the expressed needs were, and yet how profoundly unmet many of these needs went. Asked what would have helped them with their grief, the survey-takers talked again and again about acknowledgement of their grief. They wanted recognition of their loss and its uniqueness; they wanted help with practical matters; they wanted active emotional support. What they didn't want was to be offered false comfort in the form of empty platitudes. Acknowledgement, love, a receptive ear, help with the cooking, company—these were the basic supports that mourning rituals once provided …….

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Medgadget’s post, Animated Anatomies Exhibition of Historical Anatomy Flap Books, prompted me to ask @UAMSlibrary (my medical school) if they had any of them. They replied they would check and get back to me. And they did (photo credit):

Historical Anatomy Flap Books at UAMS http://on.fb.me/plDXqw (cc: @rlbates)

I think I may have to find the time to go look at the ones here locally.

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H/T to @DrVes for the link to the article on Computer Vision Syndrome [INFOGRAPHIC]. From the piece comes this good advice – remember the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes take a 20 sec break to look away from the screen at something 20 feet away.

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CNN reporter Matt Sloane is following Diana Nyad’s swim from Cuba to Florida -- Nyad: Today's swim shows 60s 'not too late' for goals (August 8, 2011)

Editor's note: CNN alone will be in the support boats with Diana Nyad on her attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. @MattCNN will be Tweeting live. CNN.com and The Chart will have a position tracker.

(CNN) -- Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida. ……….

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Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics is a nine-part documentary series which will be available to PBS stations nationwide this fall.  I sure hope my local station carries it.

"Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics" - Independent Production from The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc. from The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc. on Vimeo.