Auscultation

An immersive reading of the poem ‘To a Lady on Her Coming to North-America with Her Son, for the Recovery of Her Health’ by Phillis Wheatley reflecting on get well cards, health care disparities and how illness makes you meet so many people.

Poem
To a Lady on Her Coming to North-America with Her Son, for the Recovery of Her Health.

INDULGENT muse! my grov’ling mind inspire,

And fill my bosom with celestial fire.

See from Jamaica’s fervid shore she moves,

Like the fair mother of the blooming loves,

When from above the Goddess with her hand

Fans the soft breeze, and lights upon the land;

Thus she on Neptune’s wat’ry realm reclin’d

Appear’d, and thus invites the ling’ring wind.

“Arise, ye winds, America explore,

“Waft me, ye gales, from this malignant shore;

“The Northern milder climes I long to greet,

“There hope that health will my arrival meet.”

Soon as she spoke in my ideal view

The winds assented, and the vessel flew.

Madam, your spouse bereft of wife and son,

In the grove’s dark recesses pours his moan;

Each branch, wide-spreading to the ambient sky,

Forgets its verdure, and submits to die.

From thence I turn, and leave the sultry plain,

And swift pursue thy passage o’er the main:

The ship arrives before the fav’ring wind,

And makes the Philadelphian port assign’d,

Thence I attend you to Bostonia’s arms,

Where gen’rous friendship ev’ry bosom warms:

Thrice welcome here! may health revive again,

Bloom on thy cheek, and bound in ev’ry vein!

Then back return to gladden ev’ry heart,

And give your spouse his soul’s far dearer part,

Receiv’d again with what a sweet surprise,

The tear in transport starting from his eyes!

While his attendant son with blooming grace

Springs to his father’s ever dear embrace.

With shouts of joy Jamaica’s rocks resound,

With shouts of joy the country rings around.

References

From: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/409/409-h/409-h.htm Poems on Various Subjects Accessed 9.9.2021

Fiscella K, Sanders MR. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Quality of Health Care. Annu Rev Public Health. 2016;37:375-94.

LoPresti MA, Dement F, Gold HT. End-of-Life Care for People With Cancer From Ethnic Minority Groups: A Systematic Review. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2016 Apr;33(3):291-305.

Burris HH, Hacker MR. Birth outcome racial disparities: A result of intersecting social and environmental factors. Semin Perinatol. 2017 Oct;41(6):360-366.

Letters to a Young Poet. Rainer Maria Rilke.

An immersive reading of experts from Michel de Montaigne’s essay ‘Of Experience’ reflecting on his suffering from kidney stones with an exploration of the themes of reframing suffering, the historical treatment of kidney stones and illness narratives.

Passage:
When it assaults me gently, I am afraid, for ‘tis then for a great while; but it has, naturally, brisk and vigorous excesses; it claws me to purpose for a day or two. […] Thou art seen to sweat with pain, to turn pale and red, to tremble, to vomit blood, to suffer strange contractions and convulsions, at times to let great tears drop from thine eyes, to urine thick, black, and dreadful water, or to have it suppressed by some sharp and craggy stone, that cruelly pricks and tears the neck of the bladder

[…] But is there anything delightful in comparison of this sudden change, when from an excessive pain, I come, by the voiding of a stone, to recover, as by a flash of lightning, the beautiful light of health, so free and full, as it happens in our sudden and sharpest colics? […] As the Stoics say that vices are profitably introduced to give value to and to set off virtue, we can, with better reason and less temerity of conjecture, say that nature has given us pain for the honour and service of pleasure and indolence.

[…] I moreover observe this particular convenience in it, that it is a disease wherein we have little to guess at: we are dispensed from the trouble into which other diseases throw us by the uncertainty of their causes, conditions, and progress; a trouble that is infinitely painful: we have no need of consultations and doctoral interpretations; the senses well enough inform us both what it is and where it is. […] Now if I feel anything stirring, do not fancy that I trouble myself to consult my pulse or my urine, thereby to put myself upon some annoying prevention; I shall soon enough feel the pain, without making it more and longer by the disease of fear. He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

[…] There are none but fools who suffer themselves to be persuaded that this hard and massive body which is baked in our kidneys is to be dissolved by drinks; wherefore, when it is once stirred, there is nothing to be done but to give it passage. […] We ought to grant free passage to diseases; I find they stay less with me, who let them alone; and I have lost some, reputed the most tenacious and obstinate, by their own decay, without help and without art, and contrary to its rules. Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we.

Full essay:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3600/3600-h/3600-h.htmThe Essays of Michel de Montaigne, Complete. Translated by Charles Cotton, edited by William Carew Hazlitt. Guttenberg project. Accessed 8.6.21

References:

Shah J, Whitfield HN. Urolithiasis through the ages. BJU Int. 2002 May;89(8):801-10.

Fioretti C, Mazzocco K, Riva S, Oliveri S, Masiero M, Pravettoni G. Research studies on patients' illness experience using the Narrative Medicine approach: a systematic review. BMJ Open. 2016 Jul 14;6(7):e011220.

An immersive reading of Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘My First Well Day Since Many Ill’ about a person going outside after being sick for a long time with an exploration of the themes of summer’s end, the denial of death, and reclusiveness.

Poem:

My First Well Day Since Many Ill
by Emily Dickinson

My first well Day — since many ill —
I asked to go abroad,
And take the Sunshine in my hands,
And see the things in Pod —

A 'blossom just when I went in
To take my Chance with pain —
Uncertain if myself, or He,
Should prove the strongest One.

The Summer deepened, while we strove —
She put some flowers away —
And Redder cheeked Ones — in their stead —
A fond — illusive way —

To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried —
As if before a child
To fade — Tomorrow — Rainbows held
The Sepulchre, could hide.

She dealt a fashion to the Nut —
She tied the Hoods to Seeds —
She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about —
And left Brazilian Threads

On every shoulder that she met —
Then both her Hands of Haze
Put up — to hide her parting Grace
From our unfitted eyes.

My loss, by sickness — Was it Loss?
Or that Ethereal Gain
One earns by measuring the Grave —
Then — measuring the Sun —

References:

Hirschhorn, Norbert. “Was it Tuberculosis? Another Glimpse of Emily Dickinson’s Health.” The New England Quarterly (March 1999). 102-118.

Blanchard DL. Emily Dickinson's Ophthalmic Consultation With Henry Willard Williams, MD. Arch Ophthalmol. 2012;130(12):1591–1595.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson

An immersive reading of William Blake’s poem ‘The Sick Rose’ about a child with a serious illness with an exploration of the themes of breaking bad news, brevity, and worms.

An immersive reading of excerpts about caregiving from Gabriel García Márquez’ novel 'Love in the Time of Cholera' with an exploration of the themes of the under-recognition of caregivers, the aging body and complementary therapy.

An immersive reading of Mina Loy’s poem ‘Parturition’ about childbirth with an exploration of the themes of pain, motherhood and abstract language.

Add a bit of joy and perspective to your practice of healthcare with this humanities-inspired podcast that focuses the lens of art and literature to find fresh views on wellness and illness. Christopher Schifeling, a geriatric and palliative care physician and poet, shares immersive readings and viewings of artwork with a dose of humor. Enriching for any and everyone in healthcare: physicians, nurses, therapists, social workers, pharmacists, first responders, patients, etcetera.