Page 220 – Pulse

Q & A

Kyle Bernard

The interview had lasted fifteen minutes so far, and we’d made minimal progress. I was a medical student doing a rotation at a physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic back in my home state, Wisconsin. It was the end of the day; to save time, the senior resident, Paul, had joined me in the exam room so that we could hear Leora’s medical history together.

A year earlier, Leora, in her mid-fifties, had suffered a stroke. After a few weeks in the acute-rehabilitation hospital, she’d been discharged, and she and her husband, Ellis, had been lost to follow-up. Now they were back, hoping to resume Leora’s care.

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empty pill cup

Lightheaded

5 Comments / Poems / Ellen Cole

Ellen Cole

Lightheaded, as I so often am
when leukemia fevers sweep over me,
I fail to notice when I begin to rise,
feet bidding the floor goodbye,

I say, Brian, but you,
your eyes shut,
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
whispering in your earphones,

do not see me wink out the window
like lamp light, the lawn glittered
with glow-worms, echoed above
by the stern slow music of stars.

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In Plain Sight #2

1 Comment / visuals / Peter Kahn

Peter Kahn

About the artist:

Peter Kahn is a second year medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is interested in how stories are told by physicians and patients alike.

About the artwork:

“I took this photo as part of a series of portraits while doing clinical rotations in the Bronx, NY, with the intention of allowing patients to tell their stories in a way that they might not otherwise share with a healthcare provider. I wanted others in the medical community to get a sense of who these patients are when they are outside of the clinic or the ER, places where patients are viewed as sick or ‘needy.’ In these photographs, taken on these individuals’ own turf, our ‘patients’ can be themselves and tell their own stories through photographs. I collaborated with Daniel Akselrad on this series, in which we also gave those in our photographs a disposable camera, so they could capture their stories outside of our time together.”

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starless night

Leave a Comment / Haiku / Helen Buckingham

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The Arm

7 Comments / Stories / David G. Thoele

David G. Thoele

I was on the cusp of my first year in medical school, and time was running out. Classes started in two weeks. I needed a place to live–ideally someplace cheap, not too far from school.

There was an opening at Phi Chi medical fraternity, a large brick house of faded elegance located less than a block from my classes at the University of Minnesota. At $75 a month for a tiny room in the co-ed fraternity, it fit my budget. When I learned about the “beer machine,” an old Coke machine that dispensed beer at 15 cents a bottle (a bargain in 1979), it felt like my kind of place. I signed the lease.

But throughout the entire discussion with my prospective frat brothers and sisters about the charms and quirks of Phi Chi, no one mentioned The Arm.

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Sword

Pumpkin collages

Leave a Comment / Haiku / Seigan Ed Glassing

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In the Honda Service Area

3 Comments / Poems / Laura Foley

Laura Foley

We’re sitting knee-to-knee

while her car gets new brakes, mine new fluids.

She discusses hip replacement,

in warrior-like detail, with a friend,

each slice to flesh, how skin is spread

from bone, the pain she’s in, her plans when she gets home,

the miracle of titanium. I’m trying not to hear,

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Collateral Damage

13 Comments / Stories / Brenda Scearcy

Brenda Scearcy

Dr. Robert’s office felt right to me, with a musical birdsong soundtrack, soft lighting and fresh green tea, and I had my best friend in tow: piece of cake. In this serene atmosphere, I was sure that I’d find out what to do next to finish treating my endometrial cancer.

It’s probably gone now, since my hysterectomy two weeks back, I thought. But let’s play it safe; he’s the gynecological-cancer guru.

Like a general gearing up for combat, Dr. Robert said, “We can beat this. We’ll do a second surgery to remove lymph nodes and omentum–robotically, of course, so your recovery time will be quick. Down the road we’ll definitely do radiation and chemo, and your odds of recurrence will go way down.”

That tone. So assured…

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Long Story

1 Comment / visuals / Alan Blum

Alan Blum

About the artist:

Alan Blum is a Professor and Gerald Leon Wallace MD Endowed Chair in Family Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Tuscaloosa. A self-taught artist, he has published three books of his sketches and stories of patients, and his artworks have appeared in more than a dozen medical journals and textbooks. He is a frequent guest speaker at medical schools in courses in the humanities.

About the artwork:

“Aw it’s a long story with me. Spent all my money on my wife when she died. 2 years cancer. Wasn’t able to do anything. Wasn’t able to save her. Spent all my money. All the money I had I spent on her.” Alan Blum recalls: “I vividly remember him, sitting on the edge of the bed at the hospital (when patients could stay there for weeks on end when they couldn’t be sent home alone). He was blind, and he listened faithfully to the radio all day long waiting to hear his name so he could call in and win the jackpot.”

Visuals editor:

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

Q & A

empty pill cup

Lightheaded

In Plain Sight #2

starless night

The Arm

Sword

Pumpkin collages

In the Honda Service Area

Collateral Damage

Long Story

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