Sometimes I am astonished, delighted and even moved by the stories that MedBloggers tell. Today I'd like to point you to just a handful of my favorites from the last couple of weeks. I consider myself a storyteller, and usually I tell them from my own point of view, although I occasionally tell other patients' stories.
These are the stories we don't often get to hear, because they're coming from the other side of the exam room table:
Dr. Charles made me laugh out loud with his story about how laughter really can be the best medicine, or even, in this case, the best surgery. I agree with Dr' Charles' first commenter who says: "I honestly don't know how you can make us laugh and gross us out all at the same time!"
This of course reminds me of last week's House finale. Why did the S.O. and I feel the urge to laugh at what was really some of the grossest stuff I have ever seen on TV? Is it a "better you than me" kind of schadenfreude? (I did cover my eyes for some of it, I must admit, so gross won out over laughter for me.)
Shrinkette made me gulp at the twist in her story when a doctor colleague calls her for what she assumes is a patient consult. There are some decisions you can never take back, and doctors probably make more of them per capita than the rest of us. Shrinkette reminds us it's not just on TV that doctors agonize over the consequences of those decisions. (Sort of like Perry did on Scrubs this season over his three transplant patient/victims.)
And the Cheerful Oncologist breaks my heart when he sees a ghost in the mall.
This so reminds me of me, and how I pride myself on remembering both names and faces. For years I did theatre, and of course I had a lifetime of employment, and it only occurred to me lately that I really don't remember many of the people with whom I had close interaction anymore. I can't quite remember the full name of my leading man in a show I did in 1998. (I think I've got his first name, but have no idea about his last name.) I can't remember an engineer at a job I left 7 years ago who apparently remembers me quite well. I fell pretty guilty about letting these human beings slip from my memory, but I certainly wasn't their doctor, seeing them through the most difficult times in their life, so I feel for the Cheerful Oncologist...even if from a much more trivial perspective.
So, check out these and other stories in MedBlogs. This is where you'll find some of the best writing in the blogosphere. This week's Grand Rounds will be at Kidney Notes, and would be a very good place to start.
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