Doctors

At some later time, I will "get into" my very twisted fertility journey, but for now, let me start with my friend's :). My best childhood friend had these strange symptoms--sudden attacks of digestive problems, awful awful cramps for which she needed to stay in bed for extended periods. She had an interesting family situation, so I remember our little group hanging out with her, bringing her and waiting at endless doctor's appointments. And when she'd have another bad attack, we'd bring her to the Emergency Room, or urge her to see her doctor, and wait wait wait again. She never received a diagnosis of anything. When I was in college, I came down with a somewhat diagnoseable condition, Chronic… [more]

I read an interesting article about a doctor, who, many years ago as a resident, had a habit of taking long, detailed histories of his patients. He also is a novelist, which may explain his interest in detail. His patient was an older lady with respiratory problems that were growing worse and worse, to the point where they feared she might expire. Of course they checked out the usual: pneumonia, allergies, ashma, etc., and nothing turned up. However, in the course of his long history taking, he determined that she lived next door to a magician, who kept birds (pigeons, I think) for his tricks in his laundry room. The doctor went to the medical library and stayed up all night (this… [more]