This morning, I heard from a fellow in the NHS - Max E Nurse. It was a “friend” request in FaceBook, and since I’d never heard of him before, I had to do a bit of research. That’s when I found his blog:

It Shouldn’t Happen in Health Care, by Max E Nurse

I’m still laughing! :o)

It’s a smaller world that I’d realized … turns out that he and my old friend, John Crippen, don’t always see eye to eye! In fact, Dr. Crippen is why Max began blogging …

If you don’t take a look, you’re the one missing out. He’s got a great sense of humor, and he uses it well!

In the last few weeks, there have been a few other new bloggers. Vijay discovered them, and introduced them to us. I’m pretty sure that all of my readers also read Vijay’s blog, but just in case you missed it, make sure you check out Small Town Doc, by none other than SmallTownDoc, and A Twist of Word and Mind, by Rambodoc.

Small Town Doc is a family practitioner in a small town in Southern India, and we’ve turned him into a Stereogram addict! He’s a new blogger, and has an excellent start. I’m looking forward to getting to know him a lot better. (And to seeing a picture … ;o)

Rambodoc is based in Kolkata (I think that’s Calcutta, to us Anglos, my Indian friends can correct me if I’m wrong) … and describes himself as:

“Philosophically a votary for freedom and laissez-faire capitalism, he is philologically a Pun-jabi, physiologically a tranquolatile mix of testosterone, endorphins and encephalins, and pathologically is a potential case for solitary confinement, with intermittent electric shocks to obscure corners of the cerebral cortex.”

So - take a look! There are so many new medbloggers out there that it’s hard to get to all of them … but these are worth taking the time for!

A few days ago, Dr. Edwards contacted me about a book he’d written. Since his name was new to me, I went to Google and did a search, and this is what I came up with:

Wednesday August 29, 2007
The Guardian

From its title, In Stitches: The Highs and Lows of Life as an A&E Doctor, you might expect it to be a book about medical hackwork. But while there are comically callous anecdotes and references to medical slang (a fracture of the fourth metatarsal is a “Rooney” and patients are defined by their TTT - tattoos to teeth - ratio) much of it is written with tenderness and compassion.

The author, who uses the pseudonym Dr Nick Edwards, has an overriding purpose in writing the book. In Stitches is an attempt to explain why an increasing number of doctors, nurses and other health service workers are fed up and disillusioned with the direction that New Labour is taking the NHS.

Read the rest of the article at The Guardian.

I’m not posting this just for the sake my readers from across the pond … but for us here in the States, too. Whenever I read about the things going on in the NHS over in the UK, I wonder if that’s where we’re headed. We could learn from what’s happening to them.

The book appears to be entertaining … and educational. I’m looking forward to reading it.

I’d like to ask my blog friends to please give Dr. Edwards a mention. I’m awfully glad that I ran across our other “Doc Authors.” I’ve seriously enjoyed their books, and have been enriched by getting to know them, too! We’d be a lot poorer without having gotten to know Dr. Schwab, Dr. Gordon, and Dr. Charles.

Now … if we can just get Dr. Nick to start blogging … >;o)

Click for Dr. Edward’s book on Amazon

Well, here it is! The very end of 2006. It’s been quite a year! We’ve lost a few blogger friends, had some leave and come back (see here and here … and a few I won’t expose publicly ;o) … and found lots and lots of new Blogging friends - far too many to list! In fact, I just found a new one (new to me) today: Doctor On Call … although it almost didn’t happen, since he forgot to send me a blog link in the first email! *cough* *evil grin* Great blog though! Please take a look if you haven’t yet! He’s recently been transplanted from the deep warm south - all the way to Alaska! *brrrr*

By the way … before someone we all know and love puts me on the spot, I’d better admit that I’m bringing in the New Year with a Grateful Dead (and some of his buddies! ;o) and having my last food fling before I tape my mouth shut on January 2!

Thought I’d welcome the New Year by sharing a song from my childhood. It’s a tune I remember quite well, but I was not able to find the MP3 anyplace, unfortunately. I will keep looking, and if I should come across it, I’ll post it at a later time. The song pleads a blessing upon the New Year, our parents and friends … and I plead the same blessings upon all of you! Be well, be safe … see you all on the other side …

If you haven ‘t met Robert Lamberts over at Musings of a Districtable Mind yet … please take a stroll over there and gobble up the goodies. Bring a tissue box! You’ll laugh hard enough to need it! >;o)

Wikipedia defines listening as:

Hearing, or audition, is one of the traditional five senses and refers to the ability to detect sound.

In human beings, hearing is performed by the ears […]

Usually when I do web research, I tend to accept basic definitions of this sort … especially since, if I do a bit more research, I find that other “official sources” say pretty much the same thing …

Dictionary.com defines listening as:

lis·ten
intr.v. lis·tened, lis·ten·ing, lis·tens

1. To make an effort to hear something: listen to the radio; listening for the bell.

… however, they add a second definition:

2. To pay attention; heed: “She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit” (Maya Angelou).

That shows me that perhaps I shouldn’t take Wikipedia’s definition as complete! Wait! I wonder if Dictionary.com’s definition is incomplete too …

I think that it may well be. I’ve seen evidence that listening is so much more than a sense performed with the ears, or even a way of “paying attention.” I think that some people learn how to listen far more deeply than that … and are attentive to more than just the spoken word …

A young doctor has recently begun blogging. The first part of his blog is mostly about art … and makes me realize that he’s naturally attentive to fine detail, and his heart has learned to find beauty wherever it looks. Sometime in June, his blog changed tone a bit … and we got our first lessons in learning to listen with our hearts:

I told three young women over the phone that they lost their father. I listened patiently as all three broke down on the phone. I listened to their moaning and wailing. I remembered what it felt like to lose my father. Each call lasted less then 5 minutes. I never met these women in person. I never spoke to any of them again. Each one of them has left an indelible mark on my soul. I have never experienced grief so pure or innocent. And I will always feel responsible for that grief.

Gradually, the lessons became more poignant … they were living parables of what it means to listen with everything you are:

She usually was confident, stood tall, commanded the room. But when I ran into her in the hallway, after coming back from vacation, she was different. She wasn’t standing as tall and her shoulders were hunched mildly forward. She was leaning slightly to the right. As she smiled to say hello I could see that her posture was betraying her. Immediately I knew that her mother had died. As I offered my condolences she looked at me with confusion, she hadn’t told anyone in the office yet.

There is a lot of information in the subleties of gesture and mannerisms. They convey unspoken words if we are able to pick up on them.

I couldn’t seem to get Mrs. W out of my mind. Nothing made sense. Her marked physical deterioration should have an obvious physiologic cause….but it didn’t. I found myself deep in thought as my next patient walked into the office. As he came in I felt my whole demeanor change. He was a large man and very physical. I could almost feel his need to take up space. For the first time in years I actually felt threatened in my own office. This was a new sensation to me. I quietly took a history and examined him. I diagnosed him with a simple upper respiratory infection and was about to send him out when he said, “By the way…thank you for caring for my wife”. I quickly looked at the demographic page and with shock and horror realized that although they had different last names, this was Mrs. W’s husband. I quickly excused myself from the examining room and almost ran to my office. I called Mrs. W who answered the phone and seemed pleasently surprised to hear from me. I asked immediately, “so how long as he been abusing you?”, There was a long paunse and then, “Dr. G. I……….”. And then she hung up.

I don’t want to embarrass this fine young physician, but I would like to hold him up as an example to all of us - those who are in the medical profession, and those of us who need to learn to listen to our husbands, wives, children … the lost and demoralized co-worker … the unknown woman at the grocery store with the tear streaks on her face …

Listening … with the soul. Feeling the unspoken communications … hearing the sound of the hand that never dares reach out for the simple, but desperately needed, comfort of an understanding heart.

Thank you, my new blogging friend, for reminding us how important it is to listen … and to love.

Please - go and discover this wise young man’s blog.