When I was little, my Grandfather-of-Blessed-Memory (maternal) came to visit us at 6 am every Sunday morning, arising very early to drive about two hours from Springfield to our Boston suburb of Chelsea.
Springfield would be considered “way out west” as compared to civilized and urbanized Boston, so it is like the country mouse coming to the big city.
He said the road was not busy and drive was relaxing and pleasant for him. But his visits were anything but relaxing and pleasant for us, who would much rather have tried to sleep in on Sunday.
The exception was my paternal Grandmother-of-Blessed-Memory – who was also an early riser. Older folks often seem to get up early.
(That’s how I know I’m not old yet – I still love to sleep late). These two senior members of our family seemed to get along well. Grandfather called her “Mother Goldstein,” and even brought her a nice bottle of (coincidentally named) “Mother Goldstein” brand kosher wine. There was one incident that I recall that upset a peaceful Sunday morning when I was about five. I came downstairs in my best baby blue lace dress to hear Grandfather yelling at Grandmother never to serve him that “horrible drink” again. Read more on Chicory, Belgian Endives And Me…
Filed under medicine, News, weight by on Feb 8th, 2012. Comment. 
The car was parked but the engine was running. Just like me – My body was idle but my brain was running.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love to accompany my husband to various stores, but prefer to let him run in to pick up whatever we need while I wait in the car. I have another companion while he is gone – Public Radio.
I have a friend who is a talented stand-up comic. She’s not in the “big time” but plays the circuit of comedy clubs across the country. One of her routines is about the time she and her then-husband (you’ll see why they divorced in a few moments) stopped at a convenience store for gas during a cross-country trip.
While husband was inside paying for the gas, my friend decided to go inside for a cold drink or a candy bar. She wasn’t dressed formally, by any means – her hair was up in rollers to prepare for the evening’s performance, and she was wearing sweats. Read more on Funding Science Should Be A Priority…
Filed under Education, Government, News, politics, Religion, Science by on Feb 7th, 2012. Comment.
I have seen more than I can count of them, veterans with chronic pain symptoms. Nobody who serves our nation should be left to suffer.
In my world – nobody at all should be left to suffer.
I’ve worked in the Veterans Affairs system in many cities in several states and in various positions. I’ve been the doctor who sits in the office and sees them one by one, diagnosing them and prescribing treatment. I’ve been the evaluator who examines them and decides what kind of pension or how much disability they get. I’ve been the director of day treatment centers where we try to give these noble servants of the people everything from activities to fill up their days, to continuing therapy for problems such as PTSD, and even food and shelter. Read more on How To Help A Veteran In Pain…
Filed under News by on Feb 6th, 2012. Comment.
I don’t care if Dylan Thomas was drinking himself to death while that was being written. It is a sentiment close to my heart, and undoubtedly the stanza of poetry I quote most often.
Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rage at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I will not accept the allegedly inevitable “cognitive loss of age.”
I suppose my mother did me a service at age 10, when she dragged me fairly close to the oversized window of an oversized ladies room, and told me never to linger trying to make myself attractive, for it would be a waste of time. I was – in the opinion of my parents – destined for brains, not beauty.
Time lost in fixing my appearance would be noted sardonically by my father, and bother him, as we wasted his time.
But my strong suit was my brains, and even I agreed that I should work on them — working very hard in school — and that way I could win in life. I actually took my mother seriously, for a very long time. It was not until my late fifties that I started to be anywhere near a fashionable woman’s size, finding to my amazement that people found me attractive, and taking more notice myself than ever in my life.
But even now, I don’t give a damn if they call it “cognitive loss for age” or “dementia,” I want nothing of it.
Nothing at all.
Filed under Aging by on Jan 23rd, 2012. 1 Comment.
California is known as “The Golden State” and some have called it “The Land of Milk and Honey.”
The Beverly Hillbillies noted that it was the home of “Swimming pools – Movie stars.”
That should be encouraging for people like my 27 year old, freckled, red-headed patient. After all, he had a pool cleaning business. But he was nervous — really nervous.
He did not have full-blown panic attacks, though he certainly fit the criteria for generalized anxiety attacks. Sometimes he did get a “heart in the throat” kind of feeling; something which some people would have called a “truncated anxiety attack.” But he had a lot of them and they really didn’t cramp his style very much.
He did not sleep very well, confessed that concentration was poor, and had great difficulty trying to find any interest in collegiate academics. As a result, his grades suffered considerably. And while I could potentially chalk this up to him falling into a category of males who may be better equipped for trade school than an actual 4-year college (based on patience; not necessarily intelligence), I didn’t believe this to be his case at all.
This guy was anxious. Read more on Stuck On The Treatment Treadmill…
Filed under Public Health System by on Jan 3rd, 2012. Comment.
Sorry for the unexcused absence. It was entirely involuntary.
It's GREAT To Be Back!
We use WordPress software as a base for this blog, and the company occasionally issues an upgrade (it’s all free and up until now works great). Whenever they say “Upgrade Available” our Webmonster (AKA my loving hubby) clicks on the link and from there — it is all automatic.
Except last week.
When the software upgrade finished, all of our posts were gone! That’s almost 400 essays I’ve written since we started over earlier (when we changed providers).
I almost had a conniption fit.
For several days, the Webmonster tinkered, and finally — as you can see — restored the service.
How he does it, I do not know. Maybe he has a bag of pixie dust, or maybe he makes sacrifices to the great unknown powers of Wilicon Valley. I often tell people that I married my Tech Support, and they applaud my foresight.
Whatever — we are back! And you will probably find new content here in the next 24 hours.
And rest assured — The Webmonster has doubled his vigilance in backing up the whole site.
Love and Kisses–
Dr. G
Filed under News by on Jan 2nd, 2012. Comment.
Remember the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that nobody found? The only way you can be happy about what our beautiful government is doing is if you still think they are there.
Oh, the soldiers who looked long and hard found nothing I remember. They were looking for nerve gas and missiles and yellow cake uranium, Oh My!
Pardon me, it is the season when “The Wizard of Oz” is on TV and I just got into the weird mood of a surreal world.
Although former Pres. Bush and former CIA head George Tennant and Colin Powell and all the rest of that crew have come forward and admitted there were no WMD, I understand from some of my friends who get their entire world-view from Fox News that many of the pundits still claim it was there, is there and other such fantasies.
One of the big scares of the run-up to the Iraq war was the biological hazard attacks. Remember when anthrax was sent to some senators and some other people (it was traced to a domestic source, not a foreign one) and there were rumors-rumors-rumors of other disease-cultures being launched against our citizenry?
Filed under politics by on Dec 22nd, 2011. Comment.
I’ve written before about Dr. Milhaud — one of the professors in my French medical school. I really liked him.
He was practical and he was enough of a friend to come visit me when I returned to the USA for my general and orthopedic surgical residency staff at the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nobody else on my faculty at Amiens even thought of doing that. Read more on Why Use Medical Testing?…
Filed under Diagnosis by on Dec 15th, 2011. Comment.
My husband introduced me to the original “Star Trek” series and movies and of course the character I most identify with is Mr. Spock.
His famous catch phrase is “Humans are illogical.”
That’s an understatement – and as a psychiatrist I often see those who are far, far past illogical.
One of the topics I have frequently commented about is perhaps the most illogical of all – SPORTS.
It seems there is always a story in the news about sports injuries and deaths, and it is well established that professional sports ruins the lives of the athletes who perform and the cities that finance these bread-and-circus entertainments for their fans.
Yet, sports fans are like religious zealots – they just don’t care about the wreckage and carnage as long as they get to drink heavily and act irresponsibly.
It’s even more of a tragedy when the athletes are not professionals – they are children.
Read more on Minors Should Be Protected By More Than Helmets…
Filed under Brain Damage by on Dec 14th, 2011. Comment.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” – but there are plenty of free samples when you go to your doctor’s office for a prescription.
Be wary of free samples.
What? Am I asking you to look a gift pill in the mouth? Drugs are expensive, even the co-pay for drugs can be expensive. What’s wrong with getting a freebie?
First, the drug companies that make them do not give them out forever. Usually, they give out samples on a newer drug as part of a launch – kinda like a “grand opening” at a store. The prices are really great that first week and it gets you trained to go to that store.
Another reason drug companies discontinue free samples is that, very often, the insurance companies or government programs may not have them on the “formulary” (the list of available drugs) right away. As soon as the relevant insurance (mediCal in California) starts paying for them, you can say “Bye-bye” to free samples. Read more on Free Samples Might Carry Heavy Cost — Health…
Filed under Doctors, medicine, News by on Dec 7th, 2011. Comment.