AMA Resolution Would Seek to Label “Ungrateful” Patients

Say what???!!!!!!!!

I'm done with child birthing, but if I had been part of this labeling process "back in the day", I would have been labeled out of receiving available treatment. I practically was anyway. I had my first daughter Marissa at the hospital, only after a last minute decision to go there. The mid-wife hadn't personally delivered a breech baby. I was doing fine, got to the hospital too late for them to force a c-section on me, delivered naturally (no episiotomy, drugs, etc.) and went home. However, 4 years later I had an almost impossible time finding a doctor who would take me because the OB who delivered me had me blacklisted. Ended up going with a wonderful OB in Bedford. (another story).

Anyway.......here is another link. http://childbirthtoday.blogspot.com/2009/06/ama-promotes-physician-profiling-of.html

"Cranes at Sunset"

I am lucky enough to own this original piece of art by Patricia Coleman. This batik is also used as the art image for the Indiana Holistic Health Network. I hope to someday get back to doing art work.....it is a promise to myself.

Epitaph

Dear Inquisitive Skink,

I do recall that time, the media, how within a short span, another young woman was murdered by her husband. The community still recovers from such tragedies. Conversations about domestic violence need to be held by adults in the community. Conversations and real information needs to be offered in every school, beginning with middle-school and onward. A required class, for all graduates from high-schools, universities and colleges. Such information would benefit every community well. I think for a real understanding to be developed, each class would be a semester and designed around understanding domestic violence as it exist within our unique communities, the cost (mentally, physically, and spiritual) to the individual, children, community; preventatives, and resources to be aware of if you wake up some morning and find that this is your life.

Women and men, as Maya Anjelou said (not an exact quote) "If a person shows themselves to you, believe them". If a snake says, I am a poisonous snake, you don't treat it like a corn snake.

Recently, I participated in two memorial services. The first was a friend, aged 91, and the other, a young woman in her 60's. Each good-by was beautiful and uniquely different, yet each shared this Epitaph poem by Meredith Malloy. I hope to hold these words ever close within reach of my mind and heart.

Epitaph


When I die

Give what’s left of me away

To children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me,

Put your arms around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words or sounds.

Look for me

In the people I’ve known or loved.

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on in your eyes

And not on your mind.

You can love me the most

By letting hands touch hands,

By letting bodies touch bodies

And by letting go

Of Children

That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die, People do.

So, when all that’s left of me

Is love,

Give me away.

I’ll see you at home

In the earth.

Meredith Malloy

Voices

This poem by C.P.Cavafy (thank you to Margot for the link) continues the melancholy tone started by my post about Jannifer. I will perk up soon. These words are too lovely.

Voices

Imagined voices, and beloved, too,
of those who died, or of those who are
lost unto us like the dead.

Sometimes in our dreams they speak to us;
sometimes in its thought the mind will hear them.

And with their sound for a moment there return
sounds from the first poetry of our life—
like music, in the night, far off, that fades away.