wish me luck!

 I walked back into the hospital today and turned in my name badge. I haven’t worked there in some weeks, and this errand was a final sad parting. It was hard. For one thing, I didn’t want to run into anyone I knew. I felt the shame of losing the job… Read full post »

In September 2008, I moved across the continent to take a position with a palliative care practice at a hospital in Seattle. And then, after 16 months, I lost this job that I loved for reasons that will probably always confound me.  I’m still in a bit of shock. I’m fortunate/… Read full post »

I thought of sharing this while reading some of the lonely-sad posts that I have found here this past week, melancholy being a familiar accompanist to 'the holidays' for those of us with recent losses.

As background: I had a pretty serious emotional breakdown in 1998 during which I was… Read full post »

I have just now read Home by Marilynne Robinson, (it's a simul-quel to Gilead), swallowed in a single sitting, impossible to do otherwise. My eyes burn, my throat is dry and raw from setting down the book now and again so I could pace the room for a moment, moaning and wailing, blow/… Read full post »

I learned last month that I will be joining the ranks of the unemployed at the end of this year. This was a terrible shock to me, not because it was so unexpected (although it was completely unexpected), but because I have so loved this job that I moved across the/… Read full post »

for John Jones

If there is a harder way
He will choose it
There always is
It takes memory to snake inside
That crevice at Peril's Peak
You could get hung upside down
Blood unable to circulate in the narrows
Chest crushed, heart losing heart
Risking complete shut-down
To follow that byzantine memory
Filling th… Read full post »

 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!