History of Present Illness
[vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading source=”post_title” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”By Sophie L. Schott” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left|color:%23000000″ use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1646944776400{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Download the article (pdf)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]“Not everyone is emotionally able to care for patients with AIDS.” – The American Medical Association, 1986 Haitians, hemophiliacs, homosexuals, heroin addicts. thus begins this history of present illness: bigotry and bravery, both writ in blood, bluish blooms when […]
The Road to Recovery
[vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading source=”post_title” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”By Kirsten Woodend, PhD, RN, MSc ” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left|color:%23000000″ use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1646945419273{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Download the article (pdf)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I was broken; now I am mending but I will never be whole, So where am I on the road to recovery? Since I will never “recover”, Is this the wrong road? Is it one of […]
Office Visit
[vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading source=”post_title” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”By Michele Mekel, JD, MHA, MBA” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left|color:%23000000″ use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1646846850092{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Download the article (pdf)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Fifty, fat, female, and well-inked, I sat in the exam room, waiting. Gruff and grumpy, the grizzled white coat entered brusquely. With a glance in my direction, he made his diagnosis— but not of my condition. Rather, […]
Humanity a Plenty
[vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading source=”post_title” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”By James R. Carey, PhD, PT” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left|color:%23000000″ use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1633446654392{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Download the article (pdf)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text] Beleaguered but not broken She dons once again Her foreboding regalia– pandemic paraphernalia An unglamorous gown Hiding human form Cuffed with gloves That thwart true touch A stark dark mask Warps each word A full-faced shield […]
Fall From
Julia Chevan leads us into her experience of a concussion through her moving and intimate poem, revealing the challenge of recognizing a new reality on the road to recovery.
Constellation Syndrome
In this exquisite poem, Sophie L. Schott conveys the language that envelops a mother and her infant son, surrounded by complex medical equipment and imagining another narrative, a life not “seen through the telescope of sickness.”
Poet in Profile – Ted Kooser
Interpreting poems written by renowned poet Ted Kooser in a Nebraskan winter in 1998, his friend Amy Haddad highlights the beauty of the human spirit when faced with life-threatening challenges. Kooser wrote the poems on his two-mile walks before dawn as he recovered from surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for tongue and neck cancer in 1998. Compact and powerful, they show how one creative mind forged a bit of order in the “chaos” of recovery.
Empathy
In this artfully crafted poem, Jamie Fleshman makes a strong distinction between the shallow demands of sympathy and the far deeper mutual understanding that evolves from genuine empathy. She speaks authentically from her own experience, giving moving, useful instruction to those who want to come alongside.
Stone Tongue
[vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Stone Tongue” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%231e73be” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_custom_heading text=”By Florinda Flores” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:left|color:%23000000″ use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1550283443494{padding-bottom: 30px !important;}”][vc_tweetmeme][vc_column_text]Download the article (pdf)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The doctor observes. My son’s green-marbled eyes peer up at her. His kitten lips squirm, open, and leaden consonants stripped of vowels fall out, more stone than speech. I read aloud to him: “What does the cow say to […]
See Me
Amanda LaLonde, PT, DPT, GCS shares an original poem that captures the feelings of frightened, defiant patients in an impersonal healthcare system. In her author commentary, she then presents a challenge to herself and her colleagues to return humility, humanity, and empathy to healthcare.
