Three Cheers for Jenny

Seriously-

I don't know how she does it. Our youngest is up all night screaming and crying with ear infections in both ears. (Poor guy... oddly enough, and hopefully not related... I just got over ear infections in both ears. It was one of the most miserable things. It hurt to hear, it hurt to eat, it killed to swallow, it gave me a headache, and made me essentially non-functional for about a week. Well that and my pinkeye in both eyes and losing my voice...)

I see her trying her hardest to get things done at home despite the demands of the sick one and the relentless demands of a 3 year old. (No comment about my relentless demands which are even more... especially since I sometimes feel as though I am buried deeper than her and I worry that I make her feel that is true.) She still gets things done. Gets up at night. Takes care of the boys. Takes care of me.

She is pretty much what keeps things going in this disjointed world of ours.

Love you dear. You are awe inspiring.

New Photo

Since so many loved the previous pictures, I have another.

Post the guesses as to what you think the drawing represents.

No need to be embarrassed. Fire away! (This means you Jenny!)

The correct answer will be posted soon.

Bugs, Bugs, and MORE BUGS!

After my phys exam today and my OTM practical I have until Thursday to memorize most of the common infectious bacteria.

Here are a few images of diseases caused by the bacteria that I am learning about.

Acute Hemorrhagic Meningitis

Gonococcal Cervicitis

Fortunately for me, these pictures are pretty hard to forget and my studious predecessors took the time to make a "bug map" and a video charting out the diagnostic tests and characteristics of each bug.

Ideals in Health Care

This week we had a guest lecturer come during lunch and speak about many aspects of mental health care.

The particular spin of the message was providing "complete" and coordinated mental health care within the current healthcare system. Some salient points were:

1. Currently medicine places a heavy emphasis on mental/emotional crisis management with less effort on crisis prevention. Logically, switching this emphasis would prevent crises, averting the disastrous and costly consequences.

2. When possible, the physician should pay careful attention to the needs of a patient's family members since they too might be experiencing some degree of trauma (psychological or otherwise) with the patient. This is especially true of family members of patients that are experiencing psychological/psychiatric difficulties.

When there are dependents involved, parental behavior can induce future problems in children.

3. The primary care physician should be the person to ensure the complete integration of all aspects of health care. This includes integrating specialty care. This ensures that all of the patient's needs are being met AND that all aspects of patient care are not causing harm to the patient.

An example of this would be 2 different specialty physicians inadvertently causing harm to a patient by prescribing non-compatible drugs without knowing of what drugs a patient is taking. It would be beneficial to all for the primary-care physician to coordinate all of these aspects of healthcare.