At War With Her Skin

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by Cynthia Bernard -1- Guerrilla Warfare The Southeast Asia of my skin is where I house the enemy as it dodges, hides, digs down deep, plants incendiary devices under camouflaged places. Wait—I didn’t enlist, never went through basic training, and I haven’t been issued any equipment. And in this terrain— once a resort, green shade, crystal waters— now, one excavation after another, a crazy-quilt, cross-hatched with echoes of the surgeon’s precise needlework. -2- 13 Ways to Respond to Yet Another Biopsy Report (1) Daydream about peeling off all your skin, one bloody strip at a time. Living skinless, dripping, wrapped perhaps in parchment paper (no plastic, please) to protect the … Continue reading →

The Colors We See, The Colors We Bear

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Blue, green, yellow—a few of the hues we see,The sky, the grass, the sun—the things they ought to be.Blue, green, yellow—a few of the hues we see.Bruises, fungus, jaundice—the things that they can be. Red, pink, white—a few of the hues we see. sunsets, flowers, clouds—the things they ought to be. Red, pink, white—a few of the hues we see. Infections, zoster, tinea—the things that they can be. The ways these hues unfold Tell stories bright and bold. What appears as beauty, clear and bright, May hint at illness out of sight. Author Bio: Aaron Davidson is a medical student at Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine with … Continue reading →

And this too shall pass

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In these dark days, I keep remembering Thomas Hardy’s poem, IN TIME OF ‘THE BREAKING OF NATIONS’                         I Only a man harrowing clods    In a slow silent walkWith an old horse that stumbles and nods    Half asleep as they stalk.                        II Only thin smoke without flame    From the heaps of couch-grass;Yet this will go onward the same    Though Dynasties pass.                        III Yonder a maid and her wight    Come whispering by:War’s annals … Continue reading →

CONSIDER THE HOMELESS

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Jean Rice, 1939 – 2025 by Trip GabrielNYT, March 28, 2025 This is the NY Times article. We don’t think the Times would object to publishing it here. If they do, we’ll delete it from OJCPCHC. Jean Rice, who for decades scratched out a living, nickel by nickel, picking up deposit cans in New York while becoming a well-respected advocate for the homeless, died on March 12 in Queens. He was 85. The cause of his death, in a hospital, was heart disease, said Lillie Mae John, his cousin. Since 2020, after surviving Covid, Mr. Rice had lived in a veterans’ residence on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mr. … Continue reading →

Advancing Skin Cancer Awareness: Implementation of the Block the Blaze Program in Galveston Schools

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Katherine Benandi,* BBA, Madelyn Schmidt, BS, Frank Winsett MD This preprint version of the manuscript is posted prior to peer review or formal publication in a scholarly journal. Abstract: The Block the Blaze program, a skin cancer awareness initiative created by the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, was implemented across seven schools in Galveston, Texas, delivering 27 interactive presentations and reaching 1,864 students over two years. By fostering awareness and promoting proactive sun-safe behaviors, the program aims to instill lifelong habits, reduce skin cancer prevalence, and empower individuals to prioritize early detection and prevention. Key Words: Skin cancer prevention, health education programs, early detection, sun-safe behaviors Introduction: Block the Blaze, a … Continue reading →

When Dad Lost Use of His Arms

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When Dad Lost Use of His Armsby Scott LaMascus He wrote his jokes with nimble fingertips, keeping them pithy, all the better to surprise.  Even the flies think I’m already dead, he quipped.  We laughed as his eyes twinkled out from silence,   but I couldn’t tell what also lurked behind them, while I chased pests away with useless clown hands. What backbone and fierce humor Dad wielded as the fly circled and he eyed it like a Sphinx. Scott LaMascus is a writer in Oklahoma City whose first chapbook, The Edited Tongue (Bottlecap 2025), provides a medical memoir of his family’s experience with ALS. These lyric and varied poems arc from … Continue reading →

In the House of Psychiatry, a Jarring Tale of Violence

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Forcible restraints are routine events in American hospitals. One study, using 2017 data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, estimated the number of restraints per year in the U.S. at more than 44,000. The rate varied greatly from one country to the next. See: Epidemiology and Psychiatric Services G. Newton Howes. The use of mechanical restraint in Pacific Rim countries: an international epidemiological study. Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020International rates of mechanical restraint in 2017 varied from 0.03 (New Zealand) to 98.8 (Japan) restraint events per million population per day, a variation greater than 3000-fold. Restraint in Australia (0.17 events per million) and the … Continue reading →

Guarding the Rays: Use of an Educational Training to Enhance Sun Safety Practices Among Lifeguards

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Madelyn Schmidt, BS1, Nina Martins, BS1, Diana Bonilla, BS1, Melissa Marchan, BS1, Sylvia Jimenez, BS1, Richard F. Wagner Jr., MD2 1John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, Texas 2University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Dermatology, Galveston, Texas 1John Sealy School of Medicine, Galveston, Texas 2University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Dermatology, Galveston, Texas Corresponding author: Madelyn Schmidt BS Email: mlschmid@utmb.edu Conflicts of interest disclosures: None Key words: Medical Education, Sun Safety, Sun Protection, Skin Cancer, Dermatology. Abstract: Madelyn Schmidt and her colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Dermatology Interest Group (DID) with their mentor, Dr. Richard Wagner, worked with the Galveston Island Beach Patrol to educate lifeguards … Continue reading →

Re-Rooting

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by Evadne Giannini* and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Job 1:16 There were times during the five years of remission that someone would ask me, How was I doing? Not knowing how to describe the depth of what was going on, I would tell them that I felt like a sprout in a glass of water swaying from a cool breeze from an open window or trying not to wither from a lack of water. Clearly, the sprout and I have no footing. If we both are lucky and can survive, we both will take on a new life. The sprout will be potted and eventually get … Continue reading →

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