Episodes
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Description:
An immersive reading of Open Windows by Sara Teasdale with reflection on mobility, pain, trees and wonder.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Open Windows
by Sara Teasdale
Out of the window a sea of green trees
Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,
They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"
But I cannot answer.
I am alone with Weakness and Pain,
Sick abed and June is going,
I cannot keep her, she hurries by
With the silver-green of her garments blowing.
Men and women pass in the street
Glad of the shining sapphire weather,
But we know more of it than they,
Pain and I together.
They are the runners in the sun,
Breathless and blinded by the race,
But we are watchers in the shade
Who speak with Wonder face to face.
References:
Sara Teasdale: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sara-teasdaleUlrich RS. View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science. 1984 Apr 27;224(4647):420-1.
Mihandoust S, Joseph A, Kennedy S, MacNaughton P, Woo M. Exploring the Relationship between Window View Quantity, Quality, and Ratings of Care in the Hospital. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Oct 12;18(20):10677.
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Description:
An immersive reading of two poems, ‘Suicide’s Note’ and ‘Sick Room,’ by Langston Hughes with reflection on suicide, locations of illness and the personification of death.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Suicide’s Note
By Langston Hughes
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.
Sick Room
By Langston Hughes
How quiet
It is in this sick room
Where on the bed
A silent woman lies between two lovers—
Life and Death,
And all three covered with a sheet of pain.
References:The Weary Blues: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues
Langston Hughes: https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes
Harkup, K. (2020). Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, stabbings and Broken hearts.
Novotney, A. (2020, March 24). The risks of social isolation. Monitor on Psychology, 50(5). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation
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Episodes manquant?
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Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Arabian Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane with reflection on leprosy, the ideal clinician and cutaneous treatments.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:The Story of King Yoonan and the Sage Dooban from The Thousand and One Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane.
in former times, in the country of the Persians, a monarch who was called King Yoonán, possessing great treasures and numerous forces, valiant, and having troops of every description; but he was afflicted with leprosy, which the physicians and sages had failed to remove; neither their potions, nor powders, nor ointments were of any benefit to him; and none of the physicians was able to cure him. At length there arrived at the city of this king a great sage, stricken in years, who was called the sage Doobán: he was acquainted with ancient Greek, Persian, modern Greek, Arabic, and Syriac books, and with medicine and astrology, both with respect to their scientific principles and the rules of their practical applications for good and evil; as well as the properties of plants, dried and fresh, the injurious and the useful: he was versed in the wisdom of the philosophers, and embraced a knowledge of all the medical and other sciences. […]
He […] hired a house, in which he deposited his books, and medicines, and drugs. Having done this, he selected certain of his medicines and drugs, and made a goff-stick, with a hollow handle, into which he introduced them; after which he made a ball for it, skillfully adapted; and on the following day, after he had finished these, he went again to the King, and kissed the ground before him, and directed him to repair to the horse-course, and to play with the ball and goff-stick. The King, attended by his Emeers and Chamberlains and Wezeers, went thither, and, as soon as he arrived there, the sage Doobán presented himself before him, and handed to him the goff-stick, saying, Take this goff-stick, and grasp it thus, and ride along the horse-course, and strike the ball with it with all thy force, until the palm of thy hand and thy whole body become moist with perspiration, when the medicine will penetrate into thy hand, and pervade thy whole body; and when thou hast done this, and the medicine remains in thee, return to thy palace, and enter the bath, and wash thyself, and sleep: then shalt thou find thyself cured: and peace be on thee.
References:1001 Nights: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34206/34206-h/34206-h.htm
Leprosy: https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/index.html
Grzybowski A, Nita M. Leprosy in the Bible. Clin Dermatol. 2016 Jan-Feb;34(1):3-7. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2015.10.003. Epub 2015 Nov 17.
Eather N, Wade L, Pankowiak A, Eime R. The impact of sports participation on mental health and social outcomes in adults: a systematic review and the 'Mental Health through Sport' conceptual model.
Oja P, Titze S, Kokko S, Kujala UM, Heinonen A, Kelly P, Koski P, Foster C. Health benefits of different sport disciplines for adults: systematic review of observational and intervention studies with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2015 Apr;49(7):434-40.
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Description:
An immersive reading of Spring and All Poem XVI by William Carlos Williams with reflection on signs of illness, jaundice, liver failure, onomatopoeia and poetic apostrophe.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Spring and All, Poem XVI
By William Carlos Williams
O tongue
licking
the sore on
her netherlip
O toppled belly
O passionate cotton
stuck with
matted hair
elysian slobber
from her mouth
upon
the folded handkerchief
I can’t die
--moaned the old
jaundiced woman
rolling her
saffron eyeballs
I can’t die
I can’t die
References:Spring and All:
https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0881/Spring%2520and%2520All-WCW.pdf
or
https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781513283029William Carlos Williams: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams
Poetic Apostrophe: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/apostrophe-literary-device-meaning
Baughn RE, Musher DM. Secondary syphilitic lesions. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2005 Jan;18(1):205-16.
Health Quality Ontario. In-home care for optimizing chronic disease management in the community: an evidence-based analysis. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. 2013 Sep 1;13(5):1-65.
NB Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
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Description:
An immersive reading of A Field of Trilliums by Lori-Anne Noyahr first published in Ars Medica in 2023 with reflection on brain death, anesthesia, liminality and sounds.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Noyahr, L.-A. (2023). A Field of Trilliums. Ars Medica, 17(2), 3 pp. Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2131
References:De Georgia MA. History of brain death as death: 1968 to the present. J Crit Care. 2014 Aug;29(4):673-8.
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Description:
An immersive reading of Sippokni Sia by Winnie Lewis Gravitt with reflection on the Choctaw Indian Tribe, code switching, aging and the grandmother effect.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Sippokni Sia
Winnie Lewis Gravitt
I am old, Sippokni sia.
Before my eyes run many years,
Like panting runners in a race.
Like a weary runner, the years lag;
Eyes grow dim, blind with wood smoke;
A handkerchief binds my head,
For I am old. Sippokni sia.
Hands, once quick to weave and spin;
Strong to fan the tanchi;
Fingers patient to shape dirt bowls;
Loving to sew hunting shirt;
Now, like oak twigs twisted.
I sit and rock my grandson.
I am old. Sippokni sia.
Feet swift as wind o’er young cane shoots;
Like stirring leaves in ta falla dance;
Slim like rabbits in leather shoes;
Now moves like winter snows,
Like melting snows on the Cavanaugh.
In the door I sit, my feet in spring water.
I am old. Sippokni sia.
Black like crow’s feather, my hair.
Long and straight like hanging rope;
My people proud and young.
Now like hickory ashes in my hair,
Like ashes of old camp fire in rain.
Much civilization bow my people;
Sorrow, grief and trouble sit like blackbirds on fence.
I am old. Sippokni sia hoke.
References:Winnie Lewis Gravitt: https://poets.org/poet/winnie-lewis-gravitt
https://dictionary.choctawnation.com/word/
Coall DA, Hertwig R. Grandparental investment: past, present, and future. Behav Brain Sci. 2010 Feb;33(1):1-19; discussion 19-40.
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Description:
An immersive reading of King Lear by William Shakespeare with reflection on dementia, storms and caregivers.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:King Lear by William Shakespeare Act 3 Scene 1 lines 1-20
KENT Who’s there, besides foul weather?
GENTLEMAN One minded like the weather, most unquietly.
KENT I know you. Where’s the King?
GENTLEMAN
Contending with the fretful elements;
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea
Or swell the curlèd waters ’bove the main,
That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage
Catch in their fury and make nothing of;
Strives in his little world of man to outscorn
The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.
This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,
The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolf
Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs
And bids what will take all.
KENT But who is with him?
GENTLEMAN
None but the Fool, who labors to outjest
His heart-struck injuries.
References:King Lear (electronic): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/read/
King Lear (print): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781501118111
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
Ottilingam S. The psychiatry of King Lear. Indian J Psychiatry. 2007 Jan;49(1):52-5.
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An immersive reading of excerpts from Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag with reflection on cancer, tuberculosis, metaphors and myths.
References:Illness as Metaphor: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780312420130
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
Curran J. Illness as Metaphor; AIDS and its Metaphors. BMJ. 2007 Sep 8;335(7618):517.
Clow B. Who's afraid of Susan Sontag? Or, the myths and metaphors of cancer reconsidered. Soc Hist Med. 2001 Aug;14(2):293-312.
Oransky I. Susan Sontag. Lancet. 2005 Feb 5-11;365(9458):468.
Diniz G, Korkes L, Tristão LS, Pelegrini R, Bellodi PL, Bernardo WM. The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2023 Aug 11;21:eRW0371.
Boggiss AL, Consedine NS, Brenton-Peters JM, Hofman PL, Serlachius AS. A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors. J Psychosom Res. 2020 Aug;135:110165. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110165.
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Description:
An immersive viewing of Calavera Catrina by Jose Guadalupe Posada with reflection on skeletons, Halloween and the Day of the Dead.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/47687
References:
Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993.https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281
Posada’s Mexico edited by Ron Tyler
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173023529665&view=1up&seq=11
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Description:
An immersive reading of Sassafras Tea by Effie Lee Newsome with reflection on tea rituals, herbal remedies, the good and hindsight.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
Sassafras Tea
By Effie Lee NewsomeThe sass’fras tea is red and clear
In my white china cup,
So pretty I keep peeping in
Before I drink it up.I stir it with a silver spoon,
And sometimes I just hold
A little tea inside the spoon,
Like it was lined with gold.It makes me hungry just to smell
The nice hot sass’fras tea,
And that’s the one thing I really like
That they say’s good for me.
References:Effie Lee Newsome: https://poets.org/poet/effie-lee-newsome
Sassafras Tea: https://poets.org/poem/sassafras-tea
Caroling Dusk: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=zeabook
Noé, J. (2002). Chapter 10 Ethnomedicine of the cherokee: Historical and current applications. In Advances in Phytomedicine (Vol. 1, pp. 125-131). Elsevier B.V.
Elizabeth A. Hausner, Robert H. Poppenga. Editor(s): Michael E. Peterson, Patricia A. Talcott, (2013) Chapter 26 Hazards Associated with the Use of Herbal and Other Natural Products. In Small Animal Toxicology (Third Edition, pp 335-356) W.B. Saunders,
Sloan Kettering: https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/sassafras
Hilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, Apaydin E, Xenakis L, Newberry S, Colaiaco B, Maher AR, Shanman RM, Sorbero ME, Maglione MA. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2017 Apr;51(2):199-213.
Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, Gill JM. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5-16.
Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24.
Charlton A. Medicinal uses of tobacco in history. J R Soc Med. 2004 Jun;97(6):292-6.
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Description:
An immersive reading of Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore with reflection on healthful dust, allergies, shared decision making, white coats and scrubs.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath TagoreThe child who is decked with prince’s robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.
In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.
Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.
References:Gitanjali https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7164/pg7164-images.html
Rabindranath Tagore https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore
Blumenthal-Barby J, Opel DJ, Dickert NW, Kramer DB, Tucker Edmonds B, Ladin K, Peek ME, Peppercorn J, Tilburt J. Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Nov;38(11):1876-1881.
Lambrecht, B., Hammad, H. The immunology of the allergy epidemic and the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Immunol 18, 1076–1083 (2017).
Pfefferle PI, Keber CU, Cohen RM, Garn H. The Hygiene Hypothesis - Learning From but Not Living in the Past. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 16;12:635935.
Haahtela T. A biodiversity hypothesis. Allergy. 2019 Aug;74(8):1445-1456.
O'Donnell VR, Chinelatto LA, Rodrigues C, Hojaij FC. A brief history of medical uniforms: from ancient history to the COVID-19 time. Rev Col Bras Cir. 2020 Jun 8;47:e20202597.
Sood, S. (2023, July 10). Fashion-based medicine: A history of western doctors’ dress - hektoen internationalShefali Sood. Hektoen International - An online medical humanities journal. https://hekint.org/2023/07/10/fashion-based-medicine-a-history-of-western-doctors-dress/
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Description:
An immersive reading of an excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott with reflection on symptoms and treatments for the common cold and the clinician patient relationship.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Two nights ago I showed up to teach my class with a raw chest and a raging sore throat, that kind that feels like cancer of the trachea. I happen to have two doctors in this class, and one of them tried to assure me that it probably wasn't tracheal cancer, that in fact the viral cloud of mid-autumn had descended and many people were having similar symptoms. The other doctor recommended drinking really, really hot water. "Hot water?" I said. "Hot water? I should be home hooked up to an epidural, drinking codeine cough syrup, and you're prescribing hot water?" Then I threatened to lower his grade. (Of course, this is not a graded workshop, so my students tend to roll their eyes when I threaten them.) At the break, that doctor brought me a cup of boiling water, as though for tea but without the tea bag, and I drank it. My throat and chest stopped aching about twenty seconds later.
I hate that.
References:Bird by Bird: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780385480017
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/otc-pharmaceuticals/cold-cough-remedies/united-states
Earn DJ, Andrews PW, Bolker BM. Population-level effects of suppressing fever. Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Jan 22;281(1778):20132570.
Jaume F, Valls-Mateus M, Mullol J. Common Cold and Acute Rhinosinusitis: Up-to-Date Management in 2020. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020 Jun 3;20(7):28.
Spector SL. The common cold: current therapy and natural history. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1995 May;95(5 Pt 2):1133-8.
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
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Description:
An immersive reading of an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton with reflection on Nahuatl poetry, memento mori, and flowers.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
Excerpts from an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton
1. The fleeting pomps of the world are like the green willow trees, which, aspiring to permanence, are consumed by a fire, fall before the axe, are upturned by the wind, or are scarred and saddened by age.
2. The grandeurs of life are like the flowers in color and in fate. […]
3. The delicious realms of flowers count their dynasties by short periods; those which in the morning revel proudly in beauty and strength, by evening weep for the sad destruction of their thrones, and for the mishaps which drive them to loss, to poverty, to death and to the grave. All things of earth have an end. […]
4. […] nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear. […]
5. The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sate upon thrones […]
6. […] Were I to introduce you into the obscure bowels of this temple, and were to ask you which of these bones were those of the powerful Achalchiuhtlanextin, first chief of the ancient Toltecs; […] if I continued thus questioning about all our august ancestors, what would you reply? The same that I reply—I know not, I know not; for first and last are confounded in the common clay. What was their fate shall be ours, and of all who follow us.
7. Unconquered princes, warlike chieftains, let us seek, let us sigh for the heaven, for there all is eternal, and nothing is corruptible. The darkness of the sepulchre is but the strengthening couch for the glorious sun, and the obscurity of the night but serves to reveal the brilliancy of the stars.
References:Poem: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12219/12219-h/12219-h.htm#S_10
Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993. https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281
Noonan E, Little M, Kerridge I. Return of the memento mori: imaging death in public health. J R Soc Med. 2013 Dec;106(12):475-7. doi: 10.1177/0141076813495828. Epub 2013 Sep 11. PMID: 24025227; PMCID: PMC3842855.
Mexica vs Aztec https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/you-are-no-longer-called-aztecs-you-are-mexica
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
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Description:
An immersive reading of Alcestis by Rebekka DePew with reflection on resuscitation, life after death, and work-home balance.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
Alcestis
by Rebekka DePew
Those who die and then return are
often silent
which has never once been attributed to
having seen god
sometimes when I come back
I do not speak
sometimes when I come back
I smell on my children's breath
the tinge of flesh left too long unfed
sinew without nerve
we are lightning set to smolder
I know that now
before I left I was told
that the sun and the moon were too heavy for
the same sky
I was not told that death would linger
I was not told that the river Styx was petty
and bureaucratic I was not told
that I would always see the
asphodel in its upperworld daffodil shadows
and never again fit like salt into water in
this living world with its
olive trees and vineyards
and chamomile tea in the evening
I belong to another world
one that does not know what to make
of such things
ReferencesAlcestis: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1169
DePew R. Alcestis. Ann Intern Med. 2023;176(3):422. doi:10.7326/M22-1169
Enjabment: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/enjambment
More poems by Rebekka DePew
https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/search/index?query=Rebekka+DePew&dateFromYear=&dateFromMonth=&dateFromDay=&dateToYear=&dateToMonth=&dateToDay=&authors=
https://www.acpjournals.org/action/doSearch?AllField=Rebekka+DePew
https://jamanetwork.com/searchresults?q=Rebekka%20DePew&allSites=1&SearchSourceType=1&exPrm_qqq={DEFAULT_BOOST_FUNCTION}%22Rebekka%20DePew%22&exPrm_hl.q=Rebekka%20DePew
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Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson with reflection on alcohol withdrawal, bargaining and grey.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily. “Doctors is all swabs,” he said; “and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a- heaving like the sea with earthquakes — what to the doctor know of lands like that?— and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I’m not to have my rum now I’m a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab”; and he ran on again for a while with curses. “Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued in the pleading tone. “I can’t keep ’em still, not I. I haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim.”
References:Treasure Island paperback: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780008514587
Treasure Island digital: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm
Newman RK, Stobart Gallagher MA, Gomez AE. Alcohol Withdrawal. [Updated 2022 Aug 29]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.
Rosenbaum M, McCarty T. Alcohol prescription by surgeons in the prevention and treatment of delirium tremens: historic and current practice. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2002;24(4):257-259.
Schuckit MA. Recognition and management of withdrawal delirium (delirium tremens). N Engl J Med. 2014;371(22):2109-2113.
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore
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Description:
An immersive reading of The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper with reflection on alcohol use disorder, repression, and change.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper
He stood beside his dying child,
With a dim and bloodshot eye;
They'd won him from the haunts of vice
To see his first-born die
He came with a slow and staggering tread,
A vague, unmeaning stare,
And, reeling, clasped the clammy hand,
So deathly pale and fair.
In a dark and gloomy chamber,
Life ebbing fast away,
On a coarse and wretched pallet,
The dying sufferer lay:
A smile of recognition
Lit up the glazing eye;
“I'm very glad,” it seemed to say,
“You've come to see me die.”
That smile reached to his callous heart,
Its sealed fountains stirred;
He tried to speak, but on his lips
Faltered and died each word.
And burning tears like rain
Poured down his bloated face,
Where guilt, remorse and shame
Had scathed, and left their trace.
“My father!” said the dying child,
(His voice was faint and low,)
“Oh! clasp me closely to your heart,
And kiss me ere I go
Bright angels beckon me away,
To the holy city fair—
Oh! tell me, Father, ere I go,
Say, will you meet me there?”
He clasped him to his throbbing heart,
“I will! I will!” he said;
His pleading ceased—the father held
His first-born and his dead!
The marble brow, with golden curls,
Lay lifeless on his breast;
Like sunbeams on the distant clouds
Which line the gorgeous west.
References:Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frances-ellen-watkins-harper
The Drunkard’s Child: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=z0vmxcwxlrEC&pg=GBS.PA2&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en
Driessen E, Hollon SD. Cognitive behavioral therapy for mood disorders: efficacy, moderators and mediators. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2010;33(3):537-555.
Fairbanks J, Umbreit A, Kolla BP, et al. Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Use Disorder: Clinical Pearls. Mayo Clin Proc. 2020;95(9):1964-1977.
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Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu with reflection on wording, healthcare decision making, family and finances.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu
A fit of coughing forced him to put down the newspaper and try to get some sleep.
The next day, the TV also showed some interviews and reports about the euthanasia law, but there didn't seem to be a lot of public interest.
Tianming had trouble sleeping that night: He coughed; he struggled to breathe: he felt weak and nauseous from the chemo. The patient who had the bed next to his sat on the edge of Tianming's bed and held the oxygen tube for him. His surname was Li, and everyone called him "Lao Li," Old Li.
Lao Li looked around to be sure that the other two patients who shared the room with them were asleep, and then said, "Tianming, I'm going to leave early."
"You've been discharged?"
"No. It's that law."
Tianming sat up. "But why? Your children are so solicitous and caring-"
"That is exactly why I've decided to do this. If this drags out much longer, they'd have to sell their houses. What for? In the end, there's no cure. I have to be responsible for my children and their children."
Lao Li sighed, lightly patted Tianming's arm, and returned to his own bed.
Staring at the shadows cast against the window curtain by swaying trees, Tianming gradually fell asleep. For the first time since his illness, he had a peaceful dream. […]
It took a great deal of internal discussion before the news outlets settled on the verb "to conduct." "To execute" was clearly inappropriate; "to carry out" sounded wrong as well; "to complete" seemed to suggest that death was already certain, which was not exactly accurate, either. […]
None of Lao Li's family members were present for the procedure. He had kept his decision from them and requested that the city's Civil Affairs Bureau-not the hospital- inform his family after the procedure was complete. The new law permitted him to conduct his affairs in this manner.
References:
Death’s End (book 3): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765386632
The Three-Body Problem (book 1): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765382030
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstoreCixin Liu: https://paper-republic.org/pers/liu-cixin/
Koch T. A Sceptics Report: Canada's Five Years Experience with Medical Termination (MAiD) [published online ahead of print, 2022 Feb 12].
Virtual Mentor. 2007;9(1):188-192.
Oregon Public Health. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act 2014. Salem, OR: Oregon Public Health; 2015. Available from: www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/year17.pdf. Accessed 2015 Nov 27.
Siddiqui M, Rajkumar SV. The high cost of cancer drugs and what we can do about it. Mayo Clin Proc. 2012;87(10):935-943.
Hao Yu, Universal health insurance coverage for 1.3 billion people: What accounts for China's success?, Health Policy, Volume 119, Issue 9, 2015, Pages 1145-1152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.07.008.
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Description:
An immersive reading of Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with reflection on small pox, appearances and responding to illness.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
' How am I chang'd ! alas ! how am I grown
' A frightful spectre, to myself unknown !
' Where's my Complexion ? where the radiant Bloom,
' That promis'd happiness for Years to come ?
' Then with what pleasure I this face survey'd !
' To look once more, my visits oft delay'd !
' Charm'd with the view, a fresher red would rise,
' And a new life shot sparkling from my eyes !
[…]
' Ye, cruel Chymists, what with-held your aid !
' Could no pomatums save a trembling maid ?
' How false and trifling is that art you boast ;
' No art can give me back my beauty lost.
' In tears, surrounded by my friends I lay,
' Mask'd o'er and trembled at the sight of day;
' MIRMILLO came my fortune to deplore,
' (A golden headed cane, well carv'd he bore)
' Cordials, he cried, my spirits must restore :
' Beauty is fled, and spirit is no more !
' GALEN, the grave ; officious SQUIRT was there,
' With fruitless grief and unavailing care :
' MACHAON too, the great MACHAON, known
' By his red cloak and his superior frown ;
' And why, he cry'd, this grief and this despair ?
' You shall again be well, again be fair ;
' Believe my oath ; (with that an oath he swore)
' False was his oath ; my beauty is no more !
References:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44766/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-poxLady Mary Wortley Montagu: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lady-mary-wortley-montagu
https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox-summary-analysis.html#.Y7bqEuzML54
Small Pox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/index.html
Ehrenpreis JE, Ehrenpreis ED. A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population. Am J Med Sci. 2022 Apr;363(4):288-294.
Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan;18(1):21-5.
Gibbs D. When a cane was the necessary complement of a physician. J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1999 Jan-Feb;33(1):85-9.
Filippou D, Tsoucalas G, Panagouli E, Thomaidis V, Fiska A. Machaon, Son of Asclepius, the Father of Surgery. Cureus. 2020 Feb 19;12(2):e7038.
https://www.randomactsofflowers.org/images/documents/RAFNational-Study-HomeEcologyofFlowersStudy.pdf
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Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats with reflection on tuberculosis and the good death.Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/Work:
Ode to a Nightingale
by John KeatsMy heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth![…]
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;[…]
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,[…]
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
ReferencesOde to a Nightingale: https://poets.org/poem/ode-nightingale
John Keats: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats
Nightingale song: Digweed1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Common_Nightingale%27s_song_1.ogg
Riva, M. From milk to rifampicin and back again: history of failures and successes in the treatment for tuberculosis. J Antibiot 67, 661–665 (2014).
Sanderson C, Miller-Lewis L, Rawlings D, Parker D, Tieman J. "I want to die in my sleep"-how people think about death, choice, and control: findings from a Massive Open Online Course.
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Description:
An immersive reading of The Pool by HD with reflection on the clinical encounter, pregnancy, resuscitation, viruses and psychotherapy.
Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/
Work:
The Pool
By H.D.
Are you alive?
I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish.
I cover you with my net.
What are you—banded one?
References:
The Pool: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13056/the-poolHD: https://poets.org/poet/h-d
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