It's 3am. You wake up hot and clammy. A cactus withered and died in your mouth. Joints you never knew you had scream for WD-40. Breathing hurts. Blinking hurts. You can feel your fingernails growing, and that hurts. Did you get the flu? Zika? Are you patient zero for the latest emerging plague? You could go see a doctor, but you're a graduate student with rudimentary health insurance whose coverage documentation you barely skimmed because c'mon, you're young and healthy and you don't plan on getting sick--no, you don't … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dr. Internet, MD
medicine
Browning’s “Karshish the Arab Physician”
Mark Hansard shares another exploration of faith in Victorian literature. See previous posts exploring Browning and faith and Gerard Manley Hopkins and how aesthetic experience can point to God. … [Read more...] about Browning’s “Karshish the Arab Physician”
Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting
In the first post of this series, I was ruminating about a patient who had a rapid decline in health and social circumstances, culminating in a recent scan that showed the possibility of cancer even while he was struggling with homelessness. It was a bleak situation that caught me off guard because I was not expecting it and was grieved to think of what it would be like for him to die alone. He has since died. There is a picture and a story making rounds on the internet about the grief of physicians. An EMT … [Read more...] about Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting
Academic Justice? (Scholar’s Compass)
Memory Verse Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17 Reflection My wife said it was not going to be easy. I knew she was right. She was referring to my current research. I am interviewing persons with disabilities in Uganda. My wife and I have lived in Uganda since 2008 so we are aware of the challenges people face here. We also know that challenges are especially intense among Ugandans with disabilities. … [Read more...] about Academic Justice? (Scholar’s Compass)
Failing Faithfully: The Futility of Medicine (Scholar’s Compass)
It was stunning news. I listened with disbelief as my colleague described how a patient of ours, in whom we had uncovered a host of serious diseases over a few years, was now newly diagnosed with cancer after an incidental scan. In addition, his social supports had been eroded and I thought about what it would be like for him to die from a vicious terminal disease while alone and homeless. He would not be the first patient for me to watch die in such a way. To be a physician is, in many ways, an exercise in … [Read more...] about Failing Faithfully: The Futility of Medicine (Scholar’s Compass)