fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

August 2023

Quenching Heat

In 2023, given the variety of bottled water(s) that are sold not only in grocery stores but also in hospital and medical school vending machines, it may be hard for some people to remember a time when water, packaged in plastic bottles, wasn’t a reality. Oh, there was Perrier, San Pellegrino, and a few other brands packaged in glass bottles. But it was only after the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War—the Middle East operations known as Desert Shield and Desert Storm—that water bottled in plastic found its place on supermarket shelves and began to be purchased by consumers worldwide.

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It’s Just One Pill

When I was deciding what pediatric subspecialty to pursue, one mentor gave me this advice—think what common condition you wouldn’t mind seeing on a daily basis. As I considered various diagnoses, one stood out—iron-deficiency anemia, the backbone of pediatric primary hematology complaints. Indeed, during my fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology, I’ve seen a plethora of patients with iron-deficiency anemia. The majority are adolescent females, iron deficient due to myriad causes, most often diet or abnormally heavy menstruation.

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It Is What It Is

I am not a drinker—not of water, juice, coffee or tea, or alcohol. My children and physician constantly remind me of this unhealthy habit, stressing that my body needs fluids, especially water, to function properly. I hear them, but I do not listen. I have even ignored them these past several months when the temperatures have risen to the high eighties and often middle nineties.

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Pills Can Be Dangerous

As a new nurse, I practiced the “Five Rs” of medication administration with religious devotion:  right patient, right medication, right route, right dose and right time.  Over the next thirty years, I gave thousands of pills to patients.

Early one morning, my fellow RN called out from within a patient’s hospital room, “Getting ready for medical transport, need some help!”

Peeking into the room, “What can I do?”

Tanya replied, “Get Mrs. Smith’s meds.”

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August More Voices: Heat

Dear Pulse readers,

Many years ago, while seeking employment as a musician, I spent part of a summer in Minneapolis, a town I associated with cold winters but which, it turned out, also endured hot summers. My quarters had no air conditioning and I was sweltering, so I purchased a fan, which didn’t help much. For some reason, my place just wouldn’t cool off, even at night, and there were moments when I felt I might suffocate from the heat.

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