A Piece of My Mind , livre ebook

A Piece of My Mind
Edited by Roxanne K. Young
A New Collection of Essays From JAMA
The Journal Of the American Medical Association
Copyright 2000 by the American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
AMA Press: Anthony J. Frankos, Vice President, Business Products; Mike Desposito, Publisher; Mary Lou White, Chief Operations Officer; Jean Roberts, Director, Production and Manufacturing; Patricia Dragisic, Senior Managing Editor; Robin Husayko, Contributing Editor; John Kinney, Director, Marketing; Amy Postlewait, Marketing Manager; Boon Ai Tan, Senior Production Coordinator; Rosalyn Carlton, Senior Production Coordinator; Ronnie Summers, Senior Print Coordinator; Mary Albanese, Image Coordinator; Coralee Montes, Senior Secretary.
AMA Press hardbound edition, 2000
AMA Internet address: http://www.ama-assn.org
An excerpt from the poem Talking to the Family reprinted with permission from The Smell of Matches by John Stone. Originally published by Rutgers University Press, 1972. Reprinted by LSU Press, 1988. Copyright 1972 by John Stone. The poem Suzanne by William Carlos Williams, from Collected Poems 1939-1962, volume II , copyright 1948 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted with permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services, or technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at 800-762-2974, outside the United States at 317-572-3993 or fax 317-572-4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com .
ISBN-13 978-0-471-73532-8
ISBN-10 0-471-73532-9
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the physicians, nurses, patients, and their families whose true-life stories form the basis for these essays.
Contents
Acknowledgment
Foreword by Kathryn Montgomery, PhD
Introduction by Roxanne K. Young
The Practice of Medicine
First Day by Robert E. Murphy
A Child s Pain by Michael J. Collins, MD
The Gift by Michael A. Grassi
Mrs Rodell by Adria Burrows, MD
Tears by Paula S. Krauser, MD, MA
The Intern s Vein by Jordan Smoller, MD
When to Touch by Diane Morse, MD
Healing Arts by Lisa M. Lanzarone, MD
The Legacy by John C. Cozart, MD
Shreds of a Flowered Shirt by Emily R. Transue
Portraits by John D. Rowlett, MD
Paths by Ellen Kroop-Martin, MD
The Chief Complaint by Ann E. Dominguez
Are You Sure? by Thomas M. Gill, MD
Painful Lessons by Michael P. McCarthy, MD
Secondary Survey by Meg Verrees
A Father s Eyes by Stephen Schultz, MD
Hands On by Mark R. Fleisher, MD
Regaining Compassion by James W. Lynch, Jr, MD
Watchers by L. Stewart Massad, MD
A Vacation Fit for a Co a a by Nancy L. Greengold, MD
The Person With the Disease by Clifton K. Meador, MD
Holding the Heart by Daniel J. Waters, DO
Beginnings by Carolyn Wolf-Gould, MD
The Reward by L. Stewart Massad, MD
Identity Matters (or Does It?) by Zira DeFries, MD
Remembering Jinx by Charles Helms, MD, PhD
Light in the Afternoon by J. Dennis Mull, MD, MPH
All in the Family
Father s Day by Elaine Herrmann, RN, MPH
Ashes, Ashes by L. Stewart Massad, MD
Haying by Harriet A. Squier, MD, MA
Last Rounds by Joseph T. Martorano, MD
. . . For My Father by Khalid J. Awan, MD, FPAMS
Jerico Springs, Missouri by Brent Swager
A Doctor in Her House by Bernadine Z. Paulshock, MD
Message From Mahler by Dan Gehlbach, MD
Moments of Love by David S. Pisetsky, MD, PhD
For Everything a Blessing by Kenneth M. Prager, MD
A Conversation With My Mother by David M. Eddy, MD, PhD
The Dark Side
Do Angels Cry? by Matko Maru i , MD, PhD
The Messengers by LTC Michael V. Slayter, VC, USA
Remembered Pain by Robert S. McKelvey, MD
Belinda, Asleep Without Dreams by Kris Sperry, MD
A Simple Act by Reg Green
A Winter s Tale by Gregory J. Davis, MD
First Encounter by Daniel J. McCullough III
God Save the Child by Charles Atkins, MD
Frozen in Time by Robert Burns, MD
Thanks for the Memories
Friday Afternoon by John T. Lynn III, MD
Leek Soup by James F. Gardner III, MD
The History of Crete by Selma Harrison Calmes, MD
House Calls by Ronald F. Galloway, MD
Another Language by Marcia Goldoft, MD
My Heroes by Nina K. Regevik, MD
Retrieval by Robert H. Lokey, MD
The Captain by Seigfried J. Kra, MD
Dying to Live by Eric G. Anderson, MD
The Disability Blues by Dean Schillinger, MD
Livia by Joel Lazar, MD
Joshua Knew by Liana Roxanne Clark, MD
Thank God I Have Cancer by David M. Mumford, MD
The Delivery by L. Stewart Massad, MD
The Bard in His Outcast State by Steve Schlozman, MD
Colors by Fred Leonard, MD
Cristina by Peggy Hansen, MD
The Little Picture by Barry Gelman, MD
Until the Peppers by Bernadine Z. Paulshock, MD
Heartpains by Joseph K. Izes, MD
By the Numbers by Nancy L. Greengold, MD
Laphroaig by John T. Lynn III, MD
Babu by Mark S. Smith, MD
Jailhouse Blues by Joseph E. Paris, MD
The Last Death Song by Steven F. Gordon, MD
Flaky by Ronald A. Katz, MD
The Man Who Didn t Know He Had Cancer by Adria Burrows, MD
A Purely Cosmetic Procedure by Alan Rockoff, MD
The Hymn by David N. Little, MD
Monday Morning Clinic by Abigail Zuger, MD
Chorea by Ronald H. Lands, MD
A Little Night Poetry by Walter Schmidt, LPN
Taps by Laurie L. Brown, MD
The View From Here
Pace, Pace by Naomi G. Smith
The Great Wait by Janice F. Lalikos, MD
Thirty Years Later by Norma C. Wark
What Are We Going to Do About Mother? by Evalynn Morgan Quisenberry, BFA
Touch Me by Meg Verrees
Respect for the Dead by Dian G. Smith
A Thin Green Line by Scott Waters
He Lifted His Eyes by Nancy Keene
Windows by Frank D. Campion
Believer by Kathy Swackhamer
A Mutual Investment Company by Cheryl Morai-Young
When You Come Into My Room by Stephen A. Schmidt, EdD
The Ear by Lauri Umansky Onek
Through the Looking Glass by Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW
The Venetian Blinds by Lee Litvinas
Come Follow Me by Louis M. Profeta
Long Ago Today by Joseph J. Gallo, MD
No Better or Wiser, Just Braver and Sicker by Nina Herrmann
Perspective Shift by Daniel Shapiro, PhD
Glossary
Acknowledgment
Thanks and appreciation to George D. Lundberg, MD, and Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, former and current editors of JAMA ; and to M. Therese Southgate, MD, Senior Contributing Editor, JAMA , legendary fine-art specialist, mentor, and friend.
For providing reviews, advice, feedback, support, and encouragement: to all of the other JAMA editors, past and present; singled out: Annette Flanagin, RN, MA, Managing Senior Editor; Juliana Walker, Assistant Editor; and Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD, Executive Deputy Editor.
Special thanks to Patricia Dragisic and Robin Husayko, AMA Press editors, for editorial support; and to Lenette Gardner, Fanny Brown, and Celina Canchola for technical support.
And, on a more personal level, to my parents, Frank and Carolyn, and my husband, Norris. And to my late brothers, Charles and Michael.
Foreword
Although the practice of medicine is suffused with narrative, the stories in this collection represent a kind that is seldom heard and often left untold. Still, over the last 20 years, nearly a thousand of them have appeared in JAMA s regular section A Piece of My Mind. Now widely imitated in other medical and public health journals, these insiders accounts of medical practice constitute a secret history of what it has been like to take care of the ill (or in some stories to be ill) at the end of the 20th century.
Medical attention begins with the physician s listening to the patient s account of illness. Interpreting that story and constructing from it a medical account of disease is the fundamental clinical act. The physician matches the patient s story to a taxonomy of roughly similar stories, refines it with questions and (frequently) with test results, and then translates it into a medical narrative: a recognizable disease whose plot (both physician and patient hope) can be altered therapeutically. Physicians think using such narratives, and clinical education at every level teaches and reinforces this interpretive nar