A Review of Chronic Resilience, a book by Danea Horn
Author Danea Horn has written a book entitled Chronic Resilience in which she describes “10 sanity-saving strategies for women coping with the stress of illness.” I read a copy of the book and highly recommend it.
The stresses of being ill and suffering from chronic illness are manifold. Just today I listened to a woman in the examining room whose fear, anxiety, and sense of isolation with her medical problems were as distressing as the many unpleasant feelings of pain, dizziness, and dread. I did my best to listen to her, validate her concerns, and offer her constructive medical solutions – but I found myself al...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - September 12, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Vomiting, Diarrhea, and Our Place in the Universe
I’m not sure I can live up to the promise of this post, but as I crouched naked on my hand and knees this weekend, crippled in the 6th hour of profuse diarrhea and vomiting, a few thoughts came to me.
First, how woefully miserable it is to feel sick. Not just sniffly-nose-nasal-congestion-sick, but rather the kind of sick that if it went much longer you might question your will to keep suffering.
I felt a tight, painful clench in my trunk that would not ease; a foul urgency to sit on the toilet as liquid poured out; that familiar burst of saliva and welling nausea as I scrambled to clean one end before the guttural r...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - July 29, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Diagram of the Human Body Using Etymologies
The origin of a word is fascinating, and the etymology of a word’s evolution tells a story. You can almost picture syllables and letters marching like armies through distant lands – Old England, Low Germany, Ancient Greece… or rising up from a dark, primordial world of shapeless magic to take form and structure.
I’ve changed the anatomic names of the human body on this diagram to tell the story of each organ’s epithet. As a primary source I used Online Etymology Dictionary, which is a labor of love created by Douglas Harper using the best classic sources. The fantastic 3D anatomy rendering i...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - July 11, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Hail the Sunshine Act (?)
Do you want to know if your doctor has been eating pizza for lunch that was purchased by Pfizer as she listened to a drug rep describe a new medication? Do you want to know if your endocrinologist has been paid $1,500 to give a brief talk about a new injectable diabetes medication to his colleagues as they gobble down filet mignon? If the answer is “yes,” then you are in luck.
As the August 1st, 2013 deadline to start reporting information about these sorts of transactions approaches, doctors and hospitals are reevaluating whether a free tray of chicken salad wraps is worth the scrutiny.
The Sunshine Act, a provision o...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - June 8, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Senile Miosis
The pupils of the eye become smaller as we age,
shrinking to a mere third of their robust, youthful size.
You knew this, even if you were not aware
of the vanishing look in your grandmother’s window,
the reptilian ooze of warm blood over the cliff.
Open wide. Please. Open wider,
so that we might forget the collapsing,
the narrowing portals of grace,
the cold neutron stars,
in to which we are crushed.
In this gaping sun filled array
of gently swaying green,
wide opening pink petals,
and blue azulejo sky,
I lament the constriction of your pupils
more fervently than you can imagine.
For all things that shrink from the s...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - May 4, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Does Having Allergies Reduce the Risk of Brain Cancer?
As anyone with seasonal allergies to tree pollen knows, allergy season has begun. Aside from the sneezing, itchy eyes, nasal congestion, and general sense of being ill, is there anything good about this springtime immune system dysfunction? I came across some evidence that might slightly relieve that annual sense of “suffering” – having allergies of any kind seems to reduce the risk of glioma, including malignant brain tumors, by up to 40%.
Asthma, eczema, and hay fever seem to all have this “protective” effect. Multiple observational, case-control studies have shown that allergic conditions a...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - April 7, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Is Your Family Medical History… Heroic?
There was an article in the New York Times recently about the importance of cultivating a family narrative to instill a sense of identity, control, and resilience in children. The more children know about their family story, the better equipped they are to handle stresses that would shake their foundation. Is it possible that, in the realm of personal health and well being, the cultivation of an affirmative family medical narrative might bolster one’s constitution?
Family narratives tend to follow one of three arcs. First there is the ascending motif: your grandfather came to this country as a peasant, his son became a t...
Source: The Examining Room of Dr. Charles - March 29, 2013 Category: Primary Care Authors: drcharles Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
