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Monday, August 9th, 2010In his ruling striking down [california's anti-same-sex-marriage law] Prop 8 as unconstitutional, Judge Vaughn Walker… writes that over time marriage has moved away from a gendered institution into a union of equals and “toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles.” Such a move, he writes, “reflects an evolution of the understanding of gender rather [...]
please don’t drink the bleach.
Saturday, August 7th, 2010this is not about this story: “A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV.”
or this comment: “I’m an old ER nurse and we saw kids all the time that drank bleach. Why they will drink that and not eat vegetables is beyond me.”
it’s about miracle [...]
all about… [embarassing topic deleted]
Monday, July 26th, 2010here is a subject nobody wants to think about, until it’s personal:
constipation.
even hearing the word might make you flinch, or snicker, and for good reason. it’s from the latin com- “together” + -stipare “to cram”.
some say that the leading cause of constipation is “lofty expectations.” people do expect to “go” quickly and easily and on [...]
3 mistakes pain patients make
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010it’s summertime! and the living is easy… right?
here in oregon, it has been cool and breezy until this week. we have missed the life-threatening heatwaves seen around the rest of the nation. for example, at the lilith fair (women’s music festival) in portland, according to rolling stone magazine, fans huddled under blankets, and performers turned [...]
news about some herbs, and a peggy lee break
Thursday, June 17th, 2010the Oregon Pharmacy Board reclassified marijuana as a “schedule II” drug under the state (not federal) Controlled Substances Act.
this puts it in the same category as morphine, oxycodone, amphetamine (Adderall), and methylphenidate (Ritalin), which would make it seem that we can now start writing prescriptions for it.
why do we write prescriptions, anyway? it’s to tell [...]
how should doctors be paid? part 2
Sunday, May 16th, 2010i wonder how a person’s relationship to “health care” would change if insurance – and dependence on a faceless corporation that mainly acts to constrain one’s access to a mystifying set of hurdles – were out of the picture.
many of us, who don’t have insurance and/or don’t like or trust doctors, have a relationship to [...]
how should doctors be paid? part 1
Sunday, May 16th, 2010i said about one of my patients, “i don’t know why she’s even paying me, actually,” and my daughter wisecracked, “don’t tell THAT to any of your patients!”
i often state that i never actually wanted to become a doctor. it’s true. i was not one of those kids who dreamed of someday wearing a white [...]
“they don’t care how much you know…”
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010i know someone who could have died in childbirth.
of course i know lots of ladies who had births that were medically “abnormal” (my daughter’s 48-hour labor last week, or my own three postpartum hemorrhages, for example), yet who bounced away whole and hearty, who’ll testify they had a righteous, flamboyantly amazing, “wild-good” experience. but [...]
recognizing childhood diseases, part 3
Saturday, May 1st, 2010i’ve been reading a very interesting book called The Big Necessity by rose george (2008), about the politics and realities of “sanitation.” did you know that 4 in 10 people worldwide do not have a bathroom – or even a bucket? just the street or the bushes. and that’s as a mattter of everyday life, [...]
recognizing childhood diseases, part 2
Thursday, April 29th, 2010although it seems morbid (or at least comorbid, ha ha – doctor joke), i feel a little jealous of the many doctors who tell stories of all the childhood diseases they saw during their training in the last century. although it was frightening and terrible to become a doctor during the polio epidemics, or to [...]
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