Category Archives: rural doctor

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Wings and fog ferry

Wings

I try out
for a solo
singing

my director
is pleased
I am growing

she says
I am beautiful

she says
I look like a different person

she knows
a little of what I have weathered

 
my patient
is 86

and her husband died
in December

she misses him so

as she comes into the room
one day

she says
you look as if you have wings
and are ready to take off

and I freeze
for a moment

in surprise

that she can see
my wings.

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Lion’s mane

This is for photrablogger’s Mundane Monday #81, a Lion’s mane mushroom from up in the Olympic Mountains, taken with my cell phone.

I hiked with a friend. I am not good enough at identifying many mushrooms to pick them on my own, so I go with him. We saw at least 30 varieties most of which we left alone…. when in doubt, don’t touch.

We went out Saturday and Sunday. It rained most of the day on Saturday. I was dressed warmly enough but was very wet. Sunday it rained less and I dressed more appropriately and stayed dry…

Delicious sauteed until brown…

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Tree boat

A friend wrote a tune to my poem Tree boat.

 

Build me a boat to float in a tree
A boat of dreams and play there with me
Float in the sky in the leaves so green
Our hands together shaping a dream

Build me a boat to heal our wounds
Scarred hearts and muscles play out of tune
The world is fearsome, hold me soon
From the tree we watch the rising moon

Build me a boat to carry us far
A moon sextant to chart where we are
To Betelgeuse or another star
We are home wherever we are

Build me a boat to float in a tree
Or a lake or a stream or an ocean all three
I dream of a boat with joins so tight
Holding us safe to sleep all night

Build me a boat smooth and slow
The plans alone could take years you know
Smooth each plank with a hand plane slow
And tell me you love me soft and low

Written November 2015. I took the photograph one evening after chorus when the clouds looked like a Maxfield Parish painting….like a dream.

 

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All of my patients are smart

I am a rural family practice doctor for over twenty five years and all of my patients are smart.

All of my patients are complicated.

I don’t mean that they all have degrees or PhDs or are intellectuals. I mean that they are smart in all sorts of ways.

I was talking to the UW Pain and Addiction Telemedicine Team four years ago. I said that when I had a new chronic pain patient who is angry about the law in Washington, I would give them the link to the law: http://www.doh.wa.gov/ForPublicHealthandHealthcareProviders/HealthcareProfessionsandFacilities/PainManagement.

“You give them the link?” said one of the faculty. “But they can’t understand that.”

“Why not?” I replied. “I did.”

This was met with silence. My attitude is, well, I am a physician. I am not a lawyer. Yet I have to follow the pain law. Actually we all have to follow all the laws in our country. We say ignorance of the law is no excuse. Yet then the attitude of the pain specialists at UW was that the law is too confusing for my rural patients.

I think UW is wrong and I think that it is disrespectful to patients. Treat them as adults. Treat them as smart. Treat them as if they can understand and you will get respect back. And if they trust you they will then tell you when they do not understand or need something translated from medicalese to english.

I worked with a patient who works every day. She is in a wheelchair, a motorized one. She has cerebral palsy and can’t talk much. And she is smart too.

This election is about the United States population being smart. They know something is very wrong and they want it fixed. I think that Citizens United needs to be taken down. Corporations are not people, unless the CEO can be the physical representation of the corporation and go to jail when the corporation lies and steals. Wells Fargo, I am talking to you. I am taking my money to another bank. Pay reparations. The United States population is sick and tired of the rich getting richer and corporations stealing from people for profit. Democrats and republicans are sick and tired of it. We are not going to take it any more. If you have gotten rich from corporate underhand theft, lies and confusing regular people, give the money back. Because you can buy an island, but if the United States population rises up to hunt for you, there is no where in the world you can hide.

It is time for corporations to give the United States population the government back. Or we will take it. Because every patient I have ever taken care of in over twenty five years is smart. That is not to say we don’t all do stupid things. And some people won’t change. But in the end, everyone can learn and everyone can change.

I took the photograph in Larrabee State Park in September. This tree is down: but it is not a nurse log yet. It is not dead. The roots are still providing nourishment and it is sprouting branches all along the downed trunk.