Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 10: Yad Vashem
I wrote:
No words.
A monument and a name: Yad Vashem.
Too many words.
As we pulled into the Yad Vashem complex, we began in the Grove of Righteous gentiles. Walking over to a random group of benches (that [our guide] swore was indeed random) what do I see but a plaque bearing the names Jan and Miep Gies, from Holland. Anne Frank’s Miep! Tears began to well up.
It feels blasphemous to say it, but all…the readings and discussion felt like a distraction. Every other thing [our guide] said sent me off onto my own thought tangents. Even if I’d tried to share them, it wouldn’t have worked into his convers...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - February 3, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 9: The Golan
The Golan heights, or “up north” to Israelis, is one of the areas of contention between Israel and Syria, with many different types of pros and cons around the issue of “giving back land for peace,” which we went over at some length during our morning study session. Getting out and seeing the land, though, was wonderful:
The first picture is through the mountain passes heading north. The second is from the “heights” looking down across the fields where the Syrians fired pot shots at Israeli farmers working the land. Finally there’s the war memorial to those killed in the 1973...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - February 2, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 8: Tsfat
Imagine a magnificent medieval city high in the mountains, streets terraced into the hillside, stone buildings dating to the 1500s and before, water collected in 45 meter deep cisterns, once the center of Jewish mysticism now known as a thriving artists’ colony. No need to imagine: that’s Tsfat.
Having arrived after dark we had to wait until morning to appreciate the view. But what a view!:
The hotel used to be a Turkish inn, and the art about town was unbelievable. Something amazing at every turn:
We finally had an opportunity for shopping actually built into the program. The stated aim was to help ...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - February 1, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 7: Caesarea
Travel day, heading north. Of course given that the whole country is about the size of New Jersey, it was kind of like driving up to Hackensack. But this was Israel, and we were traveling back in time…to Caesarea.
Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea when they ruled, now filled to overflowing with Roman ruins and luxury housing, more like Moorestown than Hackensack. But I fell in love with the ruins, and spent the day happily clicking away:
There was also the Bird Mosaic, a mosaic floor in remarkable repair that was once the courtyard of a sumptuous, palatial home:
I wrote:
Although the study sessions have been...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 31, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 6: Shabbat
Ever have one of those friends where even if you don’t see them for years on end, when you finally get together again, the years fall away and it seems like you saw them just last week?
You meet their kids for the first time, realizing that some of them are older than you were when you first met, and they’re wonderful and amazing, and you wish you lived closer than 3000 miles away so you could spend so much more time with them, but you have to settle for subscribing to their YouTube channel and making them laugh by showing them YouTube videos of your kids, and then watching other videos, and then sitting down t...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 30, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 5: Jerusalem “Field Study”
I wrote:
Began with a study session on Jerusalem itself; the city. After than came an experience I never would have thought I’d…have (and which may or may not in fact have been all that good an idea): we were sent off to various Jerusalem neighborhoods to find someone — a stranger — and ask them questions about themselves, their opinions about living in Jerusalem and Israel, and various other things. Really? Really.
[DDS] and I chose French Hill, described as “a comfortable upper middle class neighborhood with many academics and Anglos due to its proximity to the University.”
We took the...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 29, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 4: Tel Aviv
I wrote:
So it turns out that Tel Aviv is a really cool city. Probably the first “planned community” in the Middle East.
Cool shot of the ancient port city of Jaffa, contiguous with Tel Aviv:
Several study sessions. Mosaics. Independence Hall (Israeli version.) Falafel. Wandering the shuk (market). Bialek house. Amazing Yemeni restaurant for dinner.
Busy day in a busy, bustling city. (Source: Musings of a Dinosaur)
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 28, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 3: Dead Sea
Turned out that we couldn’t entirely escape the weather. The first week of the trip was rainy and cold. They said there was a little snow although it didn’t stick around, but compared to what we’d left, we were unimpressed. However today it caught up with us: the road was washed out, so we never made it to Masada. It was okay, though.
We began at Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, and within minutes of our arrival I was planning my next novel. Suffice it to say that I listened to the stories of the sect who wrote the scrolls through the lens of a psychological anthropolog...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 27, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 2: Jerusalem
We were based in Jerusalem, which was fabulous. The first morning we were at the Shrine of the Book, home of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
After driving around the outside of the city to get a sense of the geography, we went in through David’s gate and made our way to what seemed like a perfectly nice little restaurant for lunch and a study session. But when I turned my head, I was startled by the view:
Yes, that’s the Dome of the Rock, the big golden dome that pretty much defines Jerusalem in terms of images, and yes, it was right there. I kept snapping pictures of all the other gorgeous landmarks, but I kept coming...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 26, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Back-Dated Travelogue, Day 1: Departure
We were so smart.
To get ahead of the monster storm forecast for the day of our departure, we decided to drive up to Newark NJ the day before and stay in a hotel. It worked like a charm: we were comfortably ensconced at the Holiday Inn before a single flake fell. The joke was on us, though, as well over two feet of snow proceeded to bury us, dashing our hopes of a departure that would have allowed us to arrive in Israel a day before the beginning of the formal program. So we stayed in the hotel an extra night, and arrived at our destination with a mere 25 hour delay, leaving our car pretty much buried in snow:
The flight ...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 25, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Travelogue (Back Dated)
So it turns out you change the date and time settings on a blog post willy-nilly. So even though it looks like I’ve gone dark and silent for a month, it was only because I was traveling. And what a trip I took!
I was out of the office for two weeks — the longest time I’ve every been away from the practice — encompassing an 11-day trip to Israel. And what a trip it was. To study biblical texts while actually at the site those texts either occurred or were written, well, to say it adds another dimension to bible study in quite the understatement.
I took a ton of pictures, of course, and have already p...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 23, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Family/Personal Source Type: blogs
Do I Have Plague?
Another email from the patient who did not have tuberculosis (lightly edited):
I did something stupid. Last night I woke up at 2:00 am to my cats hissing. I turn on the light and they have successfully surrounded a sock. So, I pick up the sock nervously expecting a spider or something but there is nothing. So, I put the sock down and an itty bitty mouse runs out of the sock and all the cats leap for it. I grab a shoe box and after about an hour, trap it. My plan was to put it outside. But I then realize this isn’t [Florida (from where the patient had recently moved)] and it is freezing outside. So I sequester the c...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 14, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs
Things I Wish I’d Said
On the phone with an older doc, who keeps saying, “What can I do for you, young lady?” and “Yes indeed, young lady.”
I fought the urge — oh I fought so hard — to say, “Wow, you must be really old if you think I’m young.” Sadly, I succeeded. I was polite throughout the encounter.
Even at the end, when he said, “Happy holidays to you, young lady,” and I managed not to say, “And to you as well, old man.” (Source: Musings of a Dinosaur)
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - January 6, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs
“Do I Have Tuberculosis?”
This is why I love my patients.
Actual email exchange with an actual patient:
SUBJECT: Do I have Tuberculosis?
I had a cold like a week ago and I am better now but I still have a cough that wakes me during the night and produces gross phlegm in the morning. But it is mostly just snot by late morning. It sounds like Keats’ description of his tubercular cough except he thought it was blood instead of phlegm because in the 19th century he probably did not know the difference. Do I need to come in to see you?
My response:
>RE: Do I have tuberculosis?
No.
>>Do I need to come in to see you?
Only if the cough last...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - December 30, 2015 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs
Why I Will Never Close to New Patients
Closing a medical practice to new patients is like cutting off the very top of a tree. It’s the beginning of the end.
The top of the tree, the crown, is where the newest leaves are. It’s also the part that continues growing ever upward, at least until it reaches it’s maximal genetic height, depending on environmental factors like the availability of water and sunlight (both of which also depend on how many other trees are competing for them nearby.)
When you cut the top off a tree, the tree will die. Not right away. Sometimes not for many years. But its death is now inevitable. (By the way, see here for a...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - December 27, 2015 Category: Primary Care Authors: notdeaddinosaur Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs
