Auscultation

Description:
An immersive reading of Alcestis by Rebekka DePew with reflection on resuscitation, life after death, and work-home balance.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
Alcestis
by Rebekka DePew

Those who die and then return are
often silent
which has never once been attributed to
having seen god

sometimes when I come back
I do not speak

sometimes when I come back
I smell on my children's breath
the tinge of flesh left too long unfed
sinew without nerve
we are lightning set to smolder

I know that now

before I left I was told
that the sun and the moon were too heavy for
the same sky

I was not told that death would linger
I was not told that the river Styx was petty
and bureaucratic I was not told

that I would always see the
asphodel in its upperworld daffodil shadows
and never again fit like salt into water in

this living world with its
olive trees and vineyards
and chamomile tea in the evening

I belong to another world
one that does not know what to make
of such things

References

Alcestis: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1169

DePew R. Alcestis. Ann Intern Med. 2023;176(3):422. doi:10.7326/M22-1169

Enjabment: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/enjambment

More poems by Rebekka DePew

https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/search/index?query=Rebekka+DePew&dateFromYear=&dateFromMonth=&dateFromDay=&dateToYear=&dateToMonth=&dateToDay=&authors=

https://www.acpjournals.org/action/doSearch?AllField=Rebekka+DePew

https://jamanetwork.com/searchresults?q=Rebekka%20DePew&allSites=1&SearchSourceType=1&exPrm_qqq={DEFAULT_BOOST_FUNCTION}%22Rebekka%20DePew%22&exPrm_hl.q=Rebekka%20DePew

Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson with reflection on alcohol withdrawal, bargaining and grey.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:

excerpts from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

But he broke in cursing the doctor, in a feeble voice but heartily. “Doctors is all swabs,” he said; “and that doctor there, why, what do he know about seafaring men? I been in places hot as pitch, and mates dropping round with Yellow Jack, and the blessed land a- heaving like the sea with earthquakes — what to the doctor know of lands like that?— and I lived on rum, I tell you. It’s been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me; and if I’m not to have my rum now I’m a poor old hulk on a lee shore, my blood’ll be on you, Jim, and that doctor swab”; and he ran on again for a while with curses. “Look, Jim, how my fingers fidges,” he continued in the pleading tone. “I can’t keep ’em still, not I. I haven’t had a drop this blessed day. That doctor’s a fool, I tell you. If I don’t have a drain o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors; I seen some on ’em already. I seen old Flint in the corner there, behind you; as plain as print, I seen him; and if I get the horrors, I’m a man that has lived rough, and I’ll raise Cain. Your doctor hisself said one glass wouldn’t hurt me. I’ll give you a golden guinea for a noggin, Jim.”

References:

Treasure Island paperback: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780008514587

Treasure Island digital: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/120/120-h/120-h.htm

Newman RK, Stobart Gallagher MA, Gomez AE. Alcohol Withdrawal. [Updated 2022 Aug 29]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.

Rosenbaum M, McCarty T. Alcohol prescription by surgeons in the prevention and treatment of delirium tremens: historic and current practice. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2002;24(4):257-259.

Schuckit MA. Recognition and management of withdrawal delirium (delirium tremens). N Engl J Med. 2014;371(22):2109-2113.

NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

Description:

An immersive reading of The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper with reflection on alcohol use disorder, repression, and change.

Website:

https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:

The Drunkard’s Child by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper

He stood beside his dying child,
With a dim and bloodshot eye;
They'd won him from the haunts of vice
To see his first-born die
He came with a slow and staggering tread,
A vague, unmeaning stare,
And, reeling, clasped the clammy hand,
So deathly pale and fair.

In a dark and gloomy chamber,
Life ebbing fast away,
On a coarse and wretched pallet,
The dying sufferer lay:
A smile of recognition
Lit up the glazing eye;
“I'm very glad,” it seemed to say,
“You've come to see me die.”

That smile reached to his callous heart,
Its sealed fountains stirred;
He tried to speak, but on his lips
Faltered and died each word.
And burning tears like rain
Poured down his bloated face,
Where guilt, remorse and shame
Had scathed, and left their trace.

“My father!” said the dying child,
(His voice was faint and low,)
“Oh! clasp me closely to your heart,
And kiss me ere I go
Bright angels beckon me away,
To the holy city fair—
Oh! tell me, Father, ere I go,
Say, will you meet me there?”

He clasped him to his throbbing heart,
“I will! I will!” he said;
His pleading ceased—the father held
His first-born and his dead!
The marble brow, with golden curls,
Lay lifeless on his breast;
Like sunbeams on the distant clouds
Which line the gorgeous west.

References:

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frances-ellen-watkins-harper

The Drunkard’s Child: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=z0vmxcwxlrEC&pg=GBS.PA2&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

Driessen E, Hollon SD. Cognitive behavioral therapy for mood disorders: efficacy, moderators and mediators. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2010;33(3):537-555.

Fairbanks J, Umbreit A, Kolla BP, et al. Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Use Disorder: Clinical Pearls. Mayo Clin Proc. 2020;95(9):1964-1977.

Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu with reflection on wording, healthcare decision making, family and finances.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:

excerpts from Death’s End by Cixin Liu translated by Ken Liu

A fit of coughing forced him to put down the newspaper and try to get some sleep.

The next day, the TV also showed some interviews and reports about the euthanasia law, but there didn't seem to be a lot of public interest.

Tianming had trouble sleeping that night: He coughed; he struggled to breathe: he felt weak and nauseous from the chemo. The patient who had the bed next to his sat on the edge of Tianming's bed and held the oxygen tube for him. His surname was Li, and everyone called him "Lao Li," Old Li.

Lao Li looked around to be sure that the other two patients who shared the room with them were asleep, and then said, "Tianming, I'm going to leave early."

"You've been discharged?"

"No. It's that law."

Tianming sat up. "But why? Your children are so solicitous and caring-"

"That is exactly why I've decided to do this. If this drags out much longer, they'd have to sell their houses. What for? In the end, there's no cure. I have to be responsible for my children and their children."

Lao Li sighed, lightly patted Tianming's arm, and returned to his own bed.

Staring at the shadows cast against the window curtain by swaying trees, Tianming gradually fell asleep. For the first time since his illness, he had a peaceful dream. […]

It took a great deal of internal discussion before the news outlets settled on the verb "to conduct." "To execute" was clearly inappropriate; "to carry out" sounded wrong as well; "to complete" seemed to suggest that death was already certain, which was not exactly accurate, either. […]

None of Lao Li's family members were present for the procedure. He had kept his decision from them and requested that the city's Civil Affairs Bureau-not the hospital- inform his family after the procedure was complete. The new law permitted him to conduct his affairs in this manner.

References:

Death’s End (book 3): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765386632
The Three-Body Problem (book 1): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780765382030
NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

Cixin Liu: https://paper-republic.org/pers/liu-cixin/

Koch T. A Sceptics Report: Canada's Five Years Experience with Medical Termination (MAiD) [published online ahead of print, 2022 Feb 12].

Virtual Mentor. 2007;9(1):188-192.

Oregon Public Health. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act 2014. Salem, OR: Oregon Public Health; 2015. Available from: www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Documents/year17.pdf. Accessed 2015 Nov 27.

Siddiqui M, Rajkumar SV. The high cost of cancer drugs and what we can do about it. Mayo Clin Proc. 2012;87(10):935-943.

Hao Yu, Universal health insurance coverage for 1.3 billion people: What accounts for China's success?, Health Policy, Volume 119, Issue 9, 2015, Pages 1145-1152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.07.008.

Description:
An immersive reading of Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with reflection on small pox, appearances and responding to illness.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

' How am I chang'd ! alas ! how am I grown
' A frightful spectre, to myself unknown !
' Where's my Complexion ? where the radiant Bloom,
' That promis'd happiness for Years to come ?
' Then with what pleasure I this face survey'd !
' To look once more, my visits oft delay'd !
' Charm'd with the view, a fresher red would rise,
' And a new life shot sparkling from my eyes !

[…]

' Ye, cruel Chymists, what with-held your aid !
' Could no pomatums save a trembling maid ?
' How false and trifling is that art you boast ;
' No art can give me back my beauty lost.
' In tears, surrounded by my friends I lay,
' Mask'd o'er and trembled at the sight of day;
' MIRMILLO came my fortune to deplore,
' (A golden headed cane, well carv'd he bore)
' Cordials, he cried, my spirits must restore :
' Beauty is fled, and spirit is no more !

' GALEN, the grave ; officious SQUIRT was there,
' With fruitless grief and unavailing care :
' MACHAON too, the great MACHAON, known
' By his red cloak and his superior frown ;
' And why, he cry'd, this grief and this despair ?
' You shall again be well, again be fair ;
' Believe my oath ; (with that an oath he swore)
' False was his oath ; my beauty is no more !

References:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44766/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lady-mary-wortley-montagu

https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox-summary-analysis.html#.Y7bqEuzML54

Small Pox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/index.html

Ehrenpreis JE, Ehrenpreis ED. A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population. Am J Med Sci. 2022 Apr;363(4):288-294.

Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan;18(1):21-5.

Gibbs D. When a cane was the necessary complement of a physician. J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1999 Jan-Feb;33(1):85-9.

Filippou D, Tsoucalas G, Panagouli E, Thomaidis V, Fiska A. Machaon, Son of Asclepius, the Father of Surgery. Cureus. 2020 Feb 19;12(2):e7038.

https://www.randomactsofflowers.org/images/documents/RAFNational-Study-HomeEcologyofFlowersStudy.pdf

Description:
An immersive reading of excerpts from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats with reflection on tuberculosis and the good death.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:

Ode to a Nightingale
by John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

[…]

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

[…]

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

[…]

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;

References

Ode to a Nightingale: https://poets.org/poem/ode-nightingale

John Keats: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats

Nightingale song: Digweed1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Common_Nightingale%27s_song_1.ogg

Riva, M. From milk to rifampicin and back again: history of failures and successes in the treatment for tuberculosis. J Antibiot 67, 661–665 (2014).

Sanderson C, Miller-Lewis L, Rawlings D, Parker D, Tieman J. "I want to die in my sleep"-how people think about death, choice, and control: findings from a Massive Open Online Course.

Description:
An immersive reading of The Pool by HD with reflection on the clinical encounter, pregnancy, resuscitation, viruses and psychotherapy.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/

Work:
The Pool
By H.D.

Are you alive?
I touch you.
You quiver like a sea-fish.
I cover you with my net.
What are you—banded one?

References:
The Pool: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/13056/the-pool

HD: https://poets.org/poet/h-d

Description:
An immersive reading of Sprin’ Fevah by Raymond Dandridge with reflection on spring fever, disability and polio.

Work
Sprin’ Fevah

Dar’s a lazy, sortah hazy

Feelin’ grips me, thoo an’ thoo;

An’ I feels lak doin’ less dan enythin’;

Dough de saw is sharp an’ greasy,

Dough de task et han’ is easy,

An’ de day am fair an’ breezy,

Dar’s a thief dat steals embition in de win’.

Kaint defy it, kaint deny it,

Kaze it jes wont be denied;

It’s a mos’ pursistin’ stubbern sortah thin’;

Anti Tox’ doan neutralize it;

Doctahs fail to analyze it;

So I yiel’s (dough I despise it)

To dat res’less, wretchit fevah

evah Sprin’.

References
The Poet and Other Poems: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Poet_and_Other_Poems/yoYTAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

"Dandridge, Raymond Garfield 1882–1930 ." Contemporary Black Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. 26 Sep. 2022 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Dialect Poetry ." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. . Encyclopedia.com. 6 Oct. 2022 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

“Paul Laurence Dunbar” Poetry Foundation. <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/paul-laurence-dunbar>.

https://www.tarabrach.com/rain/

Baicus A. History of polio vaccination. World J Virol. 2012 Aug 12;1(4):108-14.

H V W. Before the vaccines: medical treatments of acute paralysis in the 1916 new york epidemic of poliomyelitis. Open Microbiol J. 2014 Dec 12;8:144-7.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-mar-31-he-esoterica31-story.html

Emanuel MB. Hay fever, a post industrial revolution epidemic: a history of its growth during the 19th century. Clin Allergy. 1988;18(3):295-304.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/polio.html

Description:
An immersive reading of Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole with reflection on cholera, clinicians, then and now.

Excerpts:
I went down to see the corpse. A single glance at the poor fellow showed me the terrible truth. The distressed face, sunken eyes, cramped limbs, and discoloured shrivelled skin were all symptoms which I had been familiar with very recently; and at once I pronounced the cause of death to be cholera. The Cruces people were mightily angry with me for expressing such an opinion; even my brother, although it relieved him of the odium of a great crime, was as annoyed as the rest. But by twelve o’clock that morning one of the Spaniard’s friends was attacked similarly, and the very people who had been most angry with me a few hours previously, came to me now eager for advice. […] There was no doctor in Cruces; the nearest approach to one was a little timid dentist, who was there by accident, and who refused to prescribe for the sufferer, and I was obliged to do my best. Selecting from my medicine chest—I never travel anywhere without it—what I deemed necessary, I went hastily to the patient, and at once adopted the remedies I considered fit. It was a very obstinate case, but by dint of mustard emetics, warm fomentations, mustard plasters on the stomach and the back, and calomel, at first in large then in gradually smaller doses, I succeeded in saving my first cholera patient in Cruces. […] It was scarcely surprising that the cholera should spread rapidly, for fear is its powerful auxiliary, and the Cruces people bowed down before the plague in slavish despair.

References
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23031/23031-h/23031-h.htm#CHAPTER_IV

Tulchinsky TH. John Snow, Cholera, the Broad Street Pump; Waterborne Diseases Then and Now. Case Studies in Public Health. 2018:77–99. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-804571-8.00017-2. Epub 2018 Mar 30.

Barnett, R. (2014). The sick rose, or, Disease and the art of medical illustration / Richard Barnett. D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.

Description:

An immersive reading of ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer’ by Walt Whitman with reflection on ways of seeing and the art and science of medicine.

Work:

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

References

Dao, Analeigh, "Emotional and Social Responses to Stargazing: What Does It Mean To Lose the Dark?" (2016). Honors Projects. 180.