I go to Iceland. Box breathing; trapped. tomorrow I take to the water.
Author Archives: rodkersh1948
What was it you said?
ChatGPT and me; human – computer interface. Let me join the dots, let me tell you what I have forgotten.
The last lecture
I flashed-forward a decade and imagined them strutting around a hospital wards, missing the point as they seemed to miss it now.
Why Israel is not an Apartheid State & a risky date acquisition
Boycott, divest and sanction is,
Antisemitic.
Emily isn’t her real name.
Emily isn’t her real name. I introduced her to our medical student on Friday. She is rake-thin, with wizened skin From almost a century of cigarettes, She shuffles from room to room on a dusty walker, Her mobility scooter askew In the corner of her room. I’ve mentioned her before, She of the parakeet Coco.Continue reading “Emily isn’t her real name.”
Person-centred care and self-love
I, as a doctor might know all about diabetes or asthma, you as the person with the condition know all about you. What you know about you is always far more than I can know about the dry technicalities of disease, even with a lifetime of experience.
Black Swan
Moments with my daughter,
reflecting
on growth and change.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Whether I call them
Mr Cohen
Or Albert
Mrs Shleperstein
Or Gloria.
Please… Write to me.
It calls for better informed patients, a shift of the power-balance, away from ‘papa-says.’ It is an undoing of paternalism towards equality and inclusion.
Satori in the quicksand, the dimishing returns of a hospital admission
Thus, one doctor might say ‘chest infection’ another ‘bronchitis’ another ‘pneumonia’ and a fourth, ‘chest clear, probable urine infection.’
What is understood. Understood. Standing under. Capisce?
The humans built the tower to reach heaven or God and their punishment to forever live in perplexity, to hover above or alongside the dark matter.
Approaching Bambi
Life lesson for those in authority.
Imagine you are approaching Bambi when the moment matters.
A death foretold.
I am running.
Winter cannibalism, a theory of economics, healthcare, and D:Ream
Healthcare staff working in the late 90’s and early 00’s will be familiar with the airplane analogy. Sometimes a double-decker bus was used. This supposedly equated either (depending on who was talking and their level of cynicism) to the numbers of patients harmed or killed in US and UK hospitals every day. The UK planesContinue reading “Winter cannibalism, a theory of economics, healthcare, and D:Ream”
I write with no agenda, let’s see what happens. Epstein, Maxwell & Gasprom effects on Yoda the tortoise.
I worry I shouldn’t have fed him (hibernation begins on an empty stomach) and yet, he appeared hungry.
Dickens speaks to Marx who is in discussion with Harry Leslie Smith. They reach a compromise.
Yes, the NHS and the Tory.
Sure, the Tory has never liked the NHS, it is too leftie, too socialist, democratic, and yet, it is central to UK political debate; it is locked-in to our psyche.
I’ve got it. A grand unified theory! (thank you Dr Feynman).
The passage of minor electrical currents through microscopic pathways of the heart; organs that perfuse, that push and pull oxygen to brains that exist beyond the complexities of the universe
Why did granny die? They killed Gran. After Priestley. (A redo, 26/11/22)
The last time Elsie was in hospital was 50 years before when her son was born.
A final fling of the football, at the back of the net, into the hands of the goalie & a soupcon of Nietzsche.
It is telling someone you love them
As you lash-out with a punch.
Squeeze the capsule and empty the contents on to their sugar puffs. The 21st century balm.
If you open the capsule and sprinkle, everything will be ok.
Thermostatic analysis
It is seven degrees inside my house. This morning the car registered minus four. In the lake we were advised by the keeper of temperatures the water was four or thereabouts. Afterwards, the neoprene of my bootees having temporarily stuck to the frozen ground, pain shot through my fingers as blood and sensation returned. WhenContinue reading “Thermostatic analysis”
Memories of Mrs. Slocombe & Blind spots in health and care.
This, for mum was a terrible disability as language, conversation and socialising was one of her superpowers. Mum could talk with anyone at any time about anything.
Funereal wave. Suspension of belief.
Is this it?
You ask,
Is this the call?
the empty bed & the red dahlia
blink and you will miss it.
Tangled in safety-nets, a healthcare odyssey.
If you don’t agree, or even if you do, if you are in doubt, call an ambulance. I am sure the crew will be pleased to see you.
I just called / pieces of a man
What is left behind when you have gone. Audio legacy.
Football, tory intransigence & virtual reality head-sets
Poor me another drink,
Soothe me
Comfort me,
Don’t face me with facts.
Revelation #1 & the day I was kicked-out of Waitrose
If my mind is stolen,
and I acquire a Union Jack tattoo, you will know the experiment was a failure.
Crisis, alert, no beds!
Many are unaware of the pain and sometimes indignity facing the patients (as Old Adam waits on that stretcher, in hospital gown, bottom or testicle peeking-out, he needs the toilet, ‘Just go in your pad,’ he is told.)
I am a Tory! (& the trouble with memes)
You can say, ‘Molly, you are 95, your mum is dead, you have dementia, you live in a care home, sit down.’
Two or three roads diverged in a yellow wood, now and then.
Had I drowned, the story would have ended.
Thirty years ago and counting. 90’s reminiscence.
He has a glass that is so half-full that the Kool-Aid is spilling over the rim.
Time on my hands – Pour passer le temps.
For passing the time, as winter approaches.
Heraclitus, Zen & Il Gattopardo
To stay the same everything must change. That is, For you To remain In the same place, In the same state across time, Then everything else must alter Unless that is, You change a little and as The increments of progress encroach upon you The world’s altering will be less. You can’t put your handContinue reading “Heraclitus, Zen & Il Gattopardo”
Mild Cognitive Impairment, dementia, and a happy patient.
For the most, I think I know what I am talking about when I talk about dementia.
Papa
I visited my patient yesterday. He is from Alloa. In the Lowlands of Scotland. A tall, Former miner Now ageing gracefully. His grandson was there And his red-headed great-grand daughter. She sat colouring as I sounded The old man’s chest. ‘Papa, I’ll pop to the chemist.’ Said the grandson. He refers to himself in theContinue reading “Papa”
He & she, me, thee & thon
We talk so much of He As God Yet, When you think about it God is surely, If they exit, Bigger than man. Their remit Must at the very Least, Be man and woman. And isn’t She Both He and She? Doesn’t That word sustain the Essence of both? And What of they or themContinue reading “He & she, me, thee & thon”
Cold morning, 70’s flashback & white dog shit
It is Grundig TV with whiteouts and loops over and over
Where have all the bibles gone? (Can be sung to the melody of ‘Where have all the flowers gone? By Peter, Paul and Mary.)
Where have all the bibles gone? It used to be a thing I saw When staying at Hotels and hostels & similar types of places. In every Bedside drawer There would be a brown or blue Gideon Bible. ‘Look,’ I said to my daughter, ‘In your bedside drawer!’ ‘It’s empty,’ she replied. They seem toContinue reading “Where have all the bibles gone? (Can be sung to the melody of ‘Where have all the flowers gone? By Peter, Paul and Mary.)”
The state we are in, your future and mine. Echoing emptiness & uncertain tomorrow.
When you seek help, we will create systems of such complexity that no one who enters can ever arrive or find their way out. We will make Kafka laugh.
An unusual half hour – just a sharp scratch.
Vaccinations and Mystery photo…
Anxious Jew Redux, Professor Ian Robertson & Blindboy
Doctors are great at diagnosing or assigning diagnoses. It is something that makes many of them very happy. It provides the doctor with certainty, a finite box in which to insert their patient and to focus treatment – antibiotics, pain killers or anti-depressants. (I am sure there is a dopamine release every time a doctor signs a prescription).
Cognitive dissonance, the NHS, Virtual Wards, and the rest of the shit that is going down
I even recently read in a patient’s notes the following:
‘Called patient for telephone appointment. There was no answer. Patient has not attended the appointment. See again in six months.’
Bullying techniques, the lost photography of Vivian Meier, Jew-bugs & etc.
…the bullies themselves are becoming more cunning, the subtlety of the interaction can skew the response…
Take me to your specialist!
I know the people who can’t ‘get to see the doctor’ presume they are sitting around playing Wordle; this is not the case.
Today is the day of Elizabeth’s funeral. A rethink.
I keep thinking Land Rovers.
I think Dutchy Organics.
Purveyors of fine foods to HRH.
It’s a jumble.
When your batteries are running low, turn down the lights. Permanent pacemakers and other medical follies.
Recently, I received a message that my patient’s battery was running low.
Slap in the Face / To a Louse
It was a night in Dundee.
A guy whacked me in the face. I have the scar today.
The Queen, the queen is dead. Long live the.
Millennials have a super-sense that goes beyond the establishment’s reach.
Hooliganism and cheddar cheese sandwiches
If you are reading this and still eat animal-based foods on most days of the week you are contributing to the problem.
I am scared, proper anxious. Paranoid ideas and worries about the American.
There is a whole layer of stuff beyond my understanding, like the Matrix, there is a code running which can explain everything, at depth.
The 3 R’s, My American Wife & Jesus.
Stop moaning about the Norwegians or the Norway Fisheries folk and reduce your carbon footprint.
Elephants, walruses, and forlorn carpenters
Freya probably spent her days swimming between Shetland, Norway, and Holland because of Global Warming; another shitstorm caused by us, people.
The promise of the object is more powerful than the object itself
…if I don’t have that additional jam sandwich I might be in trouble.
Healthy ego
The pressures, whether overt or not, the unreasonable demands, the pushing, pulling, bullying and intimidation inherent in many workplaces or the uncertainty of tomorrow, the zero-hours tightrope, all make us human, fragile.
Not all bad news is the same, new discoveries, deviation into politics and SUMMERTIME.
Why is it not black and white? We, that is humans don’t seem to have the same problem with gravity or air…
London’s burning. Damn those firemen.
No one in healthcare works harder than GPs.
Open water swim and the bite of the pike
I don’t know what aquatic life is in Manvers, hopefully I won’t catch elvers, velvet or whatever the disease.
Nao and Zen, Time Beings and a regret for the inevitable
The butterfly beats its wings, and we are all prisoners of time.
The heat, boiling frogs and rampaging Cossacks
And yet, it is very hot.
Well, not as hot as in Yorkshire.
And the irony?
Popularity, dopamine levels and hours in the day
I started writing around six years ago as I was convinced, I was going to die from a heart attack.
Sun, sea and outdated cultural references
(Can you hear the crickets? The Bouzouki?)
Deceased albatrosses, dog companions and other thoughts and travels.
Michael was a true rambler, born in Russia he migrated to Glasgow then fought in Egypt and Palestine in the First World War then back to Glasgow and then off to Australia via Ceylon.
Too many books, or perhaps it was the pants.
I didn’t take my pants to the charity shop.
Free-association, mind-wandering, existential worries, and Yoda’s gender
Is the recession upon us? What I think about my tortoise, what do they think about me?
Killer whales, the menopause and my colleague A.
There may be women in the Tory party, it is however a sexist juggernaut.
I, like most people have a favourite pair of pants.
He had and has inherited my dad’s bibliophilia;
Language is funny and people are odd; thoughts of Macca, Kendrick and family relations
Climate change and the Anthropocene are their lingua franca. Heck, Ukraine then Roe v Wave last week. They see further than me, and that is great, that makes it worthwhile.
Weight loss junkie (the pitfalls of too much safety)
Family-doctor-dietician and still losing weight; you must be failing the person, not meeting their needs, not creating innovative or adequately tasty food, not supporting mealtimes, not doing your job.
I move through empty space.
Although if you are my brother,
Ancient Greek scholar (he’s a Greek scholar, not ancient).
This would not be surprising,
Belly. Thank you to Denise Lewis and the theory of misattributed causes
What happens when you blame others (things) for your own failings. Look within young Padawan.
I was taken aback yesterday (Human Factors, Elaine Bromiley & your local medical school)
Yesterday, Friday, I was out and about visiting some of our patients. We have an odd or you might say unusual model of healthcare provision in the surgery, I, as a geriatrician, not a GP don’t see a significant number of the ‘regular’ patients, instead I focus on those who are older or living withContinue reading “I was taken aback yesterday (Human Factors, Elaine Bromiley & your local medical school)”
Minimally invasive medicine
They perceive the wonder of human spontaneity, the fragility of hope and fear, the layers of anxiety, of prejudice, hope, joy and deprivation spinning atomic around the patient’s sense of self.
The Sailor from Dinnington
It was a few weeks ago. I was logged-on to a meeting. Locked, stock to the computer screen, my face flickering at 60Hz, my fingers dancing over the keyboard, and, me, for the most pretending to eye-contact, whilst reading the Guardian. During these times I exist in a split reality. My focus switching between theContinue reading “The Sailor from Dinnington”
Just say no.
The doctor might say, ‘I won’t give you any more pain relief until you have a test,’ a kind of pharmacological blackmail.
The carers took my independence
Originally posted on Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion):
Carers in the health and social care sector are a frequent soft-target for complaint. You can blame them for anything, and they often are the butt of the frustrations of those they support. You rarely hear complaints about the people running the agencies that employ the…
Person-Centred Teams & People
Originally posted on Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion):
Before I say anything, I’d like to begin by thanking the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Programme for starting me along this journey, and, Helen Sanderson for making it meaningful. If anyone is interested in reading more, please check-out Helen’s books or Helen Sanderson Associates’ website. I have written…
Photographic evidence. A long, convoluted road.
Sorry, you are inadequately tenacious to change the world. Go to prison. Do not stop at Go. Do not collect…
A dying breed. Knock, knock, It’s the doctor.
What makes a GP special is their knowledge of a patient, their insight over months, years, even decades into a person’s life. The bond that continues after the acute illness has passed, the person recovered, perhaps passed through school, left for college and returned, married then divorced, raised children.
Psychoneuroimmunology and all that
We are the finite of our bodies and we are the infinite of our minds.
We are a walking anachronism.