Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Arthur Frank

  • Seeking medicalization: chronic illness without diagnosed disease

    Camille KrollChicago, Illinois, United States I was wheeled into the bright lights of the operating room with the symptom-based diagnoses of chronic pelvic pain and irritable bowel syndrome. When I groggily emerged several hours later, I had a new label: someone with a disease. Endometriosis is a notoriously tricky disease to diagnose because often only…

  • Breathless: philosophical lessons from respiratory illness

    Havi CarelUnited Kingdom It is 12:28. I have just parked my car in a lucky empty space just outside my office. I have a meeting at 12:30. I am texting with one hand and feeling for my inhaler in my coat pocket with the other. I pull the inhaler out, place it in my mouth,…