Physician | Author | Animal Lover
Dear Friends—Happy October! This week, I again open up PhoebeMD.com for another networking event. I originally started this on PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry as a dedicated time for bloggers to come together to share their work, make new connections, and expand their blog audiences. In short: a chance to promote yourself and your blogs. This is your time to shine!
The guidelines are simple (but please follow them):
By Judith Evans | Featured Contributor
Heavy steps through the clinic door.
Scores of faces, waiting room eyes
Follow my feet to the check-in desk.
Finally, a space for my face near the water cooler.
18 minutes of freedom, wishing our dog were here.
I dream, screaming silently till I hear my name.
Dead down the hall: sterile chairs, swabs, lidocaine,
Blood draw, raw nerves, tsk tsk near the back of my head.
Are you in pain? As if I were deaf.
No space for my face any more.
Meanwhile, it’s snowing.
Will this freeze cease?
Have you ever left one of your health appointments disappointed with your visit? Maybe you had just spoken to a health care professional, but instead of feeling like all of your concerns were addressed, you found yourself with even more questions?
In this article, I will present some practical ways in which you can prepare for any encounter you might have with the health care system—whether it is a routine doctor’s visit or an unexpected trip to the ER—so you can make the most out of your interactions with your health care professionals. In short, these tips will show you how to be an empowered patient.
By Anabel Geneta-Raymundo | Featured Contributor
Author’s Note: This is a poem illustrating the situation of many of our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.
***
Teasing. Playing. Children laughing.
Planting. Caring. Mothers preaching.
Resting. Working. Fathers sweating.
Dreaming. Relishing. People trying.
Growing. Reaching. Afghans thriving.
Living. Loving. ‘til Taliban’s coming.
Now hiding. Panicking. Borders closing.
Looking. Waiting. Others escaping.
By Linda M. Wolfe | Featured Contributor
Have you ever felt broken? What are some possible scenarios which may make a person feel broken? Do you think it could be a frightening health diagnosis? Could it be losing one’s job or home? What about coping with the loss of a loved one? Could it be the loss of a relationship or a business? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. How many people do you know seem to lead a perfect life? There are quite few, if any, who have never had a factor which could potentially cause one to feel broken. It is part of being human.
The tipping point which threatened to shatter my life was our son’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis. All I could think of was the horrifically short life expectancies of people who have received this diagnosis. He had already experienced two years of symptoms prior to this. Our son was only thirty-one years old when he was diagnosed. It can be devastating to lose a family member, particularly from the younger generation. Initially, I lost my desire to eat and my ability to sleep. Pounds as well as hair began to break away from my body.
Continue reading “Feeling Broken from Our Son’s Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis: Linda’s Story”
By Cynthia Cady Stanton | Featured Contributor
You would think
that by the time we reach maturity,
we would know how
to make the way clear
for ourselves…
And yet,
the patterns continue –
the ones that
face-plant us amidst
the tangle around us.
Those frustrating weeds
of all we hang onto
have pinned us down
and left us feeling powerless.
Dealing with and managing chronic pain can be one of life’s most devastating and life-altering experiences. In three or more months—the official duration that defines chronic pain—your new life can seem so far removed from what you would have considered normal, even just half a year ago. Now living with chronic pain, it would seem like your entire life only revolves around hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and medicines. Dreams, hobbies, joys, and for some, even their work, can seem like such a distant memory, one from a healthy lifetime ago. Whether it’s from a severe spinal cord injury, genetic arthritis, or unknown cause, chronic pain can throw even the most resilient people for a loop.
How then, do you deal with the pain and get your life back? Here are nine tips that can help you manage chronic pain.
