Denialism

Category: Medical Musings

  • Don’t mess with your neck doing yoga either

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    For some reason the NYT is all about neck injury lately. In yesterday’s discussion of a possible chiropractic induced injury, Russell asked: But given all the other stresses people put on their necks, from accidents such as headbumps, from purposeful athletics such as whacking soccer balls, and from just craning one’s head in odd positions…

  • Nerds once again in control of government

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    And I breathe a sigh of relief. Working nights my schedule is a tad goofy, but I wake up today to see this guy describing the changes in the new budget: This is Peter Orszag the new director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is a nerd and I instantly like him. I…

  • Eulogy

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    My father-in-law wore his nickname without irony. His was the kind of nickname that would be tough to bear on the playground, but despite being a teacher for decades, any juvenile thoughts wouldn’t have crossed his mind. I don’t think he knew how to be insulted. And while he may not have been easy to…

  • Everyday, every day

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    I love language, which I suppose is as good a reason as any for being a writer. I’m also terribly critical—I hate misuse of language, especially my own. I’m not talking about silly grammatical rules that real speech renders moot. I’m talking about the misuse of words that actually changes meaning. Every day I give…

  • So, would you do it again?

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    (I felt Doctor Signout deserved a more complete answer, so here it is.) I’m surrounded by cynicism. Doctors make particularly good cynics (although not always the best skeptics). Why are we cynics? Pehaps because we see human behavior in the raw. On a daily—no, hourly—basis, we see people making decisions that destory their bodies. People…

  • Some days it’s harder

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    I’m a little down today. I’ve told you before that I take care of my own patients in hospice. I’ve also told you about watching patients and friends lose their battles with disease. This week I had serious talks with several people about end-of-life issues (the details of which I can’t really share at the…

  • Fountain pens

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    I love fountain pens, but I’m far to busy for the regular ritual of cleaning, filling, etc. Most of my day is spent scrawling notes or typing on a keyboard. But there is one task for which only a fountain pen will do.

  • Adventures in staffing—a new physician

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    When a resident of student presents a patient with me and I help them formulate a plan, we call it “staffing” the case. Recently while I was staffing, I was presented with a patient who speaks little English, but speaks another language fluently. Unfortunately for us, this language wasn’t Urdu, Spanish, French, Romanian, or Hindi…

  • How do you say it?

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    I am often the bearer of bad news. I don’t think I’ve ever been formally taught how to deliver bad news, but I’ve developed a style over the years, and I’m pretty good at it. I work with medical residents every day in their outpatient clinics. Most of them have never had to deliver bad…

  • I hate being sick

    —

    by

    MarkH
    in

    In the interest of blog synergy, I’m reposting this from my old blog. I’m actually quite lucky. Despite being surrounded by infectious diseases for sixty hours a week, I don’t get sick all that much (OK, maybe more than most, but I don’t have data). I actually called in sick for part of the day,…