Posts tagged as:

surgery

IATROGENIC [ahy-a-truh-JEN-ik]: a medical disorder caused by the inadvertent diagnosis, manner, or treatment of a physician

July 22, 2012

“ Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.” How many times have we heard this, or something like it?  There’s  no question that some therapies required as treatment for serious illnesses are painful, nauseating, debillitating, and just plain awful.   But the hope is that the therapy is temporary and the result is permanent. The [...]

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VIGIL: a watch or period of intentional waiting

June 11, 2012

I don’t expect to be lighting any candles.  In fact, I’ll probably be thrown out of the hospital if I do. But today I’ll be keeping a vigil at Miriam Hospital in Providence as my wife is undergoing total knee replacement.   She’ll be in surgery for over an hour and then in the recovery room [...]

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WORST CASE SCENARIO: the most extreme example from among the list of possible outcomes

February 27, 2011

Why is it that when we are presented with a list of options for potential activity, we tend to gravitate to the worst case scenario? (I’ve used the pronoun “we” in the last sentence; perhaps I should restrict it to “I.”  Maybe others are better at this than I am.) For instance.   I had total [...]

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D-DAY: a day of significance

December 13, 2010

For people of my generation and older, the word D-Day has a primary significance.  We who grew up in the era following World War II heard much of the date June 6, 1944, when the Allied Forces made a huge incursion on the mainland of Europe and the war was in its primary moment.  It [...]

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REALITY: that which settles in after fantasy has disappeared

December 8, 2010

Well, it’s been several months now since my new orthopedic physician became my best friend.  Not really.  In just less than a week he’s going to hurt me.  He and a staff of very competent people are going to slice my knee open, use a saw to remove my knee, and then replace it with [...]

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FORTITUDE: mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger,or temptation courageously. (Dictionary.com)

November 3, 2009

———————– Fortitude is not something you learn, it is something that is part of your makeup. Maybe it is genetic, or maybe it is something which grows out of the environment in which you are raised. Wherever it comes from, Fortitude is a gift, especially in these difficult times. When a person can be resilient [...]

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