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
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
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
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
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
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
Protected: Shameless Super KOLs
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Guarding the Rays: Use of an Educational Training to Enhance Sun Safety Practices Among Lifeguards
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
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
Rearranged
Rearranged An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer and Life Transposed By Kathleen Watt,Heliotrope Books, New York 2023 by David J. Elpern, M.D. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air. T. Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Would this not be the fate of Kathleen Watt’s riveting and important pathography. The topic is her decade-long odyssey of treatment for, and recovery from, osteogenic sarcoma of the jaw. As a physician, I have found that textbooks are of limited value. They are essential, but take one just … Continue reading
