Medicine – Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion)

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.

I am long and thin by the end of the summer… Who am I?

You know the game. A cryptic clue and an unexpected answer. It came to me this evening, when I was discussing my role with colleagues. I am a hospital trained doctor who works in the community and helps older people, although sometimes young ones too. Who am I? I am a geriatrician. Although I hateContinue reading “I am long and thin by the end of the summer… Who am I?”

Every time I stand up I fall over.

Older people falling is often a bad thing. The Kersh Condition and diagnostic heuristics.

The merry-go-round

Interestingly, hospital can be the least-safe place for older people, with home being what most want and with far fewer hazards such as the risk of institutionalisation, over-medicalisation, polypharmacy, falls and a host of other healthcare associated ills.

How long until I die? (Locked down and out in 2020)

Often old men and women will seek human contact, particularly when feeling isolated – and when I reciprocate with my gloved hand (that they don’t appear to notice as being anomalously purple or blue) we are able to make contact, to connect.

Covid – my brain, my brain! What is happening to my brain?

Serial processing; switching backwards and forwards from concentrating on Word to Outlook to Chrome uses mental energy;

Excellence

You see, nowadays, in order to study medicine, you have to be little short of an academic wunderkind.

Manor Field Surgery Blog #5 DNACPR

100 years ago, dying in your sleep in your 70’s was the considered a good-innings. Where will we be in another 100 years?

Hypo-perfusion or embolic phenomenon

Time almost always does the trick;

That,

And staying calm.

Drugs and drug reps

I refused.

She did not like that.

Attack!

I guess we need those people who can take a beating and come back for more, who can’t ignore their beliefs or principles.

Should they stay or should they go? (A paean to physicians everywhere)

Should they stay?

Well, often I just don’t know;

They can’t even get their crap recruitment right

I tweeted yesterday something about the UK’s workforce problems facing health and social care. There you go. Check out the blog I wrote a couple of weeks ago, then the more recent plan for a visit across to India. You could read this two-ways. The first; the NHS isn’t working – look at Switzerland, Germany,Continue reading “They can’t even get their crap recruitment right”

Person-centred mainstream?

I gave my annual lecture to the Sheffield University Medical Students on Thursday. It was the hottest day of the year. I have been standing in front of the students for something like 15 years – since I was training to become what I am today, a doctor obsessed with person-centred care, helping older people,Continue reading “Person-centred mainstream?”

Blogs, Poems, etc 2017

Rod’s Blogs, Poems, etc. Table of Contents I search for meaning. 6 ‘Behavioural’ 8 10 Years. 10 10 years. 11 99+. 13 1559 days. 15 A response to Henry. 17 A tale of two times?. 18 Acute. 20 Advance Care Plan, Human Rights & I want what I want 23 alea iacta est 25 AllContinue reading “Blogs, Poems, etc 2017”

Bright young things.

Bright young things, medical students clamouring to calculate. Is it A or B or C? Which principle? Infection, inflammation or infarction? Smile, Purell, Hello, my name is. Smile. /Lean-in.