There are many ways observe the Jewish faith. The most observant go to shul daily, some three times a day, for prayer. There is the Shabbos Jew, who goes to Shabbos services every week on erev Shabbat, Friday evening, and again on Saturday morning, perhaps on Saturday… Read full post »

Today I noticed the air in Seattle. It’s soft, spongy, almost silky. As waters in different places differ to the mouth, local air has a unique sensation against the face, upon bare arms. The soothing Seattle air makes me happy I moved here. It’s the kind of surprise that keeps me… Read full post »

Welcome to the seventh issue of Palliative Care Grand Rounds, a potpourri of insightful, relevant, challenging, oft-times poignant and always well-written postings from the blogosphere that focus on palliative care. PGR appears the first Wednesday of each month, rotating from one host to another… Read full post »

According to this news report, a woman pled not guilty yesterday in a Sudanese Court to the crime of immodest dress-- wearing slacks in public. Had she pled guilty, as it is noted that many women do in the same situation, she would have been punished with 10 lashes and a fine.… Read full post »

People ask me what Outpatient Palliative Care is. What do I do? Today was a typical day.

Two of my patients are in the hospital.  I'll see them first. Then I can go to the nursing home and do my home visits. 

RB, 26 years old, wants to go home, has… Read full post »

You can do something to show solidarity

Join: 100 Million Facebook members for Democracy in Iran here Read full post »

BIG GAY ICE CREAM TRUCK .... AND ME

It seems like the less a statesman amounts to the more he adores the flag.   -Kin Hubbard, (1868-1930) Read full post »

A springboard diver

that moment, arched in the air,

my longing for you.

This separation-

rent into pieces of me/you

no longer myself.

You say, I don’t know.

It takes years to understand.

This is your answer.

But can you say why?

Must this residue always

haunt… Read full post »

I was the nurse.
In the lab, I methodically reassembled
fetal parts: femur, tibia, vertebrae.
Once a spectacular cochlea–a tiny
snail spiralling to a point of origin.
Each part counted, accounted for.
Each woman comforted, released.  

For ten years in the abortion clinic,
anatomy, embryology,… Read full post »

A tanker of chicken guts had overturned on Route 7 some weeks earlier, and the road still reeked of it.  Asphyxiation is poetic but boring. Distance is no object.

In short: am I unwilling to sell the car because I still love it, because I still need it, or because you're not… Read full post »

DAY 1

Preventing falls? C-PAP or tai chi?

Probably not.

Ice cave collapse

Finding myself in the crevices/between places

Where I do not belong

Radio this morning: Air France jet disappears on route.

Shaken-baby syndrome

Blast injuries

Death—it’s just the tip of the iceb… Read full post »

I didn't know George Tiller, but I did know John Bayard Britton and David Gunn. The connection? All three were physicians. All three provided abortion services. And all three were murdered--that is, shot to death at point blank range--by so called "pro-life" killers. 

George Tiller MD was shot… Read full post »

There is an ecstatic feeling I just can't describe in words whenever I plunge into a new vagina for the very first time. Mr E

Mr. E. is terribly confused about women and shoes.  Verbal Remedy

I could tally your assets for days.  “Hello”she lied

Ok, read my interview! Please and thank you!

Here 'tis!

Pager bleats its rising and lowering notes (de-da-do-da-de). Familiar as my name, but as I am wading from sleep to wake, I seem to think that a fire truck, siren blaring, is racing down my street. Fire? Should I wake up? I snap back to me, awake, trying to make out… Read full post »

There is no free market for health care. Patrick Hahn

http://open.salon.com/blog/xylocopa

Oh, and one hellish summer I worked for Wal-Mart. I try to block out that experience as much as possible. Leeandra Nolting

http://open.salon.com/blog/leeandra_nolting 

OK, Judas, give me back my Crest White… Read full post »

Dissociation

It's how you turn… Read full post »

I've been blog-blocked for the past few weeks. Well, I've been busy too, but with the feeling that something isn't getting said, something is, well, blocked from view. Blocked from voice.  There is a lot going on--a spinning vortex of thoughts that are pre-verbal, chaotic. I'm in one of tho… Read full post »

All of us. Each of us.
With our distinct faces,
Our unique thumbprints,
Our own affliction.

For a long time
I have collected pain
And now I don't know
What to make of it.

Isn't this enough? To
Enter this world through
Our own mother's body?
But we are lost.

Grief waits in the alley
For the ambush.

 … Read full post »

I've been visiting her for several months, mostly working on her chronic pain. Sometimes, before a visit, I think about how hard it is to sit with her. She is really depressed. And really in pain. Some of it is existential, but most of it is physical pain from underlying physical… Read full post »