My stomach had blown up like a basketball. The discomfort was like previous episodes of constipation I have had as a result of Parkinson’s. A week ago, I had asked a fellow Parkinson’s patient how he got diagnosed. He said he had ten years of constipation, which turns out can be a serious complication of …
“We need to talk” The attending said that before berating me “You’re never home” Reminder to send a referral to that nursing home “You’ve been so distant” My patient can’t travel from their rural home for treatment “I need more” My oncology patient begging for more time “Don’t you remember how it used to be?” …
His hands move through the air, reaching. Out and then back again. The wrinkled fingers nearly touch, tremble, and move apart. It is a motion that could be mistaken for some kind of prayer, the wafting of incense nearer, to wreath his head. In the background are the shouts of college students at the bar, …
I knock and introduce myself: — I’m here to draw your labs. — Count Dracula, come in, but say, How painful are your stabs? I tell him with a cheerful smile: — Most patients don’t complain, I do this everyday and so, Know how to find a vein. Big eyes stare up at me, Suspicion …
“With fear, faith, and love, draw near.” This was sung before receiving
It’s my first day working on the COVID ICU I have so many fears We know nothing about this disease I don my PAPR and do the safety checks I don’t believe in God, but I pray I will be safe I enter the anteroom, take a deep breath And open the door to the …
Battle of the Genes written by John Tokle FADE IN: INT. UTERUS – DAY A fetus floats in amniotic fluid, weightless; gravity doesn’t seem to reach this aquatic world. It’s peaceful here. An umbilical cord spirals out to Earth, an entire dimension away. We zoom in. Cells dividing, migrating, amalgamating. An ambiguous lump takes shape; …
a pitcher plant luring its prey,
Table of contents
Fire
It is apparent that it is time to transition
Restitution stories attempt to outdistance mortality by rendering illness
One Halloween in grade school, my parents solicited the help of my three
My father was a professor of biology. His children were his first students. He
The term in the title?
This story actually begins years before I started practice in my rural
On two separate occasions, an ambulance whisked my wife’s sister from
I am not a god who can stare into your soul I am not a priest in a wood confessional my job is to help and I’ll be here by your side try to understand as I pry out points you hide still your life is yours with your friends and loves to quote I …
