Tag: aging
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The last picture show
Katherine WhiteRockville, Maryland, United States It was a cold December morning, the second day of the 2018 Hot Topics in Neonatology Conference in Washington, DC. Around 800 people trickled into the vast hotel ballroom, with its rows of long tables punctuated by aisles strewn with numbered microphones, settling in for a day of information-packed projected…
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The names of things
Joseph HodappCupertino, California, USA It’s a gray-sky, late-October afternoon. I just got home from work when I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. The caller ID provides a brief preface: Mom. “Hey Mom, what’s up?” “Hey Hun, I wanted to call you right away… my mom had a stroke this morning.” Her words are…
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In full retreat
Cyndy MuscatelLake Sherwood, California, United States I did not realize how far down the rabbit hole I had gone until I regained what I had lost. I thought it was only my hearing, but it was much more. When I become overwhelmed, I start losing things. Last winter my plate was so full, I needed…
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A house call
Martin DukeMystic, Connecticut, United States Many years ago, in the mid 1980s, when I was still in clinical practice, I made a house call accompanied by a second year medical student who was coming to my office one day a week as part of her course in physical diagnosis. The patient I had been called…
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Understanding and combatting ageism in healthcare
Dane WanniarachigeDublin, Ireland As I waited for the tram on a windy day in Dublin, I noticed an older man wearing a flat cap shuffling unhurriedly towards the busy platform with a noticeable parkinsonian gait. The tram slowed to a halt and as soon as the doors opened, a gust of wind blew the gentleman’s…
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Gilgamesh and medicine’s quest to conquer death
Anika KhanKarachi, Pakistan “O Uta-napishti, what should I do and where should I go?A thief has taken hold of my [flesh!]For there in my bed-chamber Death does abide,and wherever [I] turn, there too will be Death.”—From The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Standard Version, Tablet XI1 “O Uta-napishti, what should I do and where should I…
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What’s hormones got to do with it? The medicalization of menopause in postwar America
Pavane GorrepatiIowa City, Iowa, United States Introduction From menstruation to menopause, there appears to be a deliberate and constant medicalization of the stages of a woman’s life. Menopause, a biological process every woman experiences, has been cast in a negative light, a time to be wary rather than to be celebrated. This has led the…
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Falls and art: An evolving story
Glenn ArendtsMurdoch, Australia Coming to rest inadvertently on the ground:1 the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a fall sounds vaguely patronizing, bordering on disinterested. The human act of staying upright is a complex triumph of the integration of neurosensory, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular systems, and its failure is associated with injury, fear, and embarrassment. Ancient…
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The professor and the playwright on what it means to care
Fergus Shanahan Wilton, Cork, Ireland ALLELUJAH! by Alan Bennett. Credit: Manuel Harlan / ArenaPAL (with permission). Sue Wallace as Hazel; Simon Williams as Ambrose; Rosie Ede as Mrs Earnshaw; Cleo Sylvester as Cora; Julia Foster as Mary; Louis Mahoney as Neville; Patricia England as Mavis; Colin Haigh as Arthur; Gwen Taylor as Lucille; Nicola…