Denialism

Category: Medical Musings

  • When a patient asks for the unusual

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Here’s the conundrum: Let’s say your patient’s insurance has decided that they will pay for 12 sessions of reiki for, say, back pain. All that the patient needs to have this therapy approved and paid for is their primary care doctor’s referral. Let’s say that doctor has examined the evidence, and found reiki to be…

  • Never say “hopeless”

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    by

    MarkH
    in , ,

    I can’t tell you the number of people who complain to me about having their hope taken away. Exactly what this means, though, isn’t always clear. Sometimes an oncologist will tell them (so they say) that they have a month to live. Sometimes their cardiologist tells them (so they say) not to travel to their…

  • Why hospice matters

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    by

    MarkH
    in ,

    I recently lost a close family member to cancer. She was old, she had been ill a long time; it still hurts. But in her dying, she made some wise choices. She was a very bright woman, and retained her mental capacities right up until the end. This gave her the opportunity to decide how…

  • Whoopie!

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    MarkH
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    Last night I was reading a book to my daughter at bedtime. It was all about a kid who had chickenpox. I looked at my wife and said, “this is a bit outdated.” “So what, it’s cute,” she accurately replied. Wow. I hadn’t thought about it much lately, but chickenpox in the U.S. is disappearing…

  • Off to work…what micro-organisms will I encounter today?

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    I’m off to the walk-in clinic in a little while. If past experience is a useful guide, I will see at least a dozen people with various respiratory viruses causing colds, conjuntivitis, bronchitis, and sinus infections (offending viruses include adenovirus, rhinovirus, and many others). Generally, the folks giving a home to these bugs need grandmotherly…

  • I hate orange urine

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a very common problem, especially in women. The link provided offers some very good information, but briefly, women’s urethrae (the tube the urine comes out of), are closer to the rectum than those of men (who have a built-in “spacer”). This allows bacteria from the colon to creep over to…

  • God in the exam room

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    My profession does not allow me the luxury of suffering fools, but neither does it allow me the luxury of always being blunt in my beliefs. Readers may have noticed a slight tendency toward snarkiness, especially when dealing with woo. I refuse to pull punches when it comes to people peddling quackery. Religion is different.…

  • Some skills in medicine are harder to teach

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    by

    MarkH
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    Teaching facts is easy. Medical students eat facts like Cheetos, and regurgitate them like…well, use your imagination. Ask them the details of the Krebs cycle, they deliver. Ask them the attachments of the extensor pollicis brevis, and they’re likely to describe the entire hand to you. Facts, and the learning of them, has traditionally been…

  • Dying Sucks (so I’m told)

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    I’ve been fortunate enough to have excellent health, despite poor diet and lack of exercise. I’ve never really been confronted by my own mortality. In my business, however, I am surrounded by others’ tragedies. I did my training in a large city that attracts lots of young people from my home town. They tend to…