Auscultation

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin translated by Hildegarde Serle with reflection on nursing homes, caregivers, loneliness and dementia. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:“How's it going today, Monsieur Girardot?”"My wife has died.""That was a long time ago, now.""You know, when you've lost the person you loved most in the world, you lose her every day.""How's it going today, Monsieur Duclos?""Shut it, stupid bitch.""Well, I say, you're going strong this morning.""How the hell d'you think it's going?""Like a late summer.""Stupid bitch.""I can be. Come on, time to get up.""What the hell are you doing?""You need to have a wash, Monsieur Duclos.""Go fuck yourself.""Well, I wouldn't say no.""Asshole.""OK, I'll see if that's possible."[…]"How's it going today, Monsieur Mouron?""The pain in my legs ….. Didn't sleep a wink all night.""I'll ask the doctor to come by this morning, OK?""If you like.""Shall I switch the TV on?""No. It's just women's stuff in the morning.""How's it going today, Madame Minger?""Someone's stolen my glasses.""Really? Have you looked everywhere?""Everywhere. I'm sure it's old Houdenot who's at it again.""Madame Houdenot? Why would she have stolen your glasses?""To annoy me, of course."

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne with reflection on medical errors and confession. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:A Hymn to God the Father by John DonneWilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,         Which was my sin, though it were done before?Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,         And do run still, though still I do deplore?                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,                        For I have more.Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won         Others to sin, and made my sin their door?Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun         A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?                When thou hast done, thou hast not done,                        For I have more.I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun         My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son         Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;                And, having done that, thou hast done;                        I fear no more.References:Wu AW. Medical error: the second victim. The doctor who makes the mistake needs help too. BMJ. 2000 Mar 18;320(7237):726-7. doi: 10.1136/bmj.320.7237.726. Finkelstein A, Brezis M, Taub A, Arad D. Disclosure following a medical error: lessons learned from a national initiative of workshops with patients, healthcare teams, and executives. Isr J Health Policy Res. 2024 Mar 11;13(1):13.Rodziewicz TL, Houseman B, Vaqar S, et al. Medical Error Reduction and Prevention. [Updated 2024 Feb 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2000. PMID: 25077248.

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of Thoughts by Myra Viola Wilds with reflection on psychotherapy, meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy and vision loss. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork: Thoughts by Myra Viola Wilds   In your travels day by dayAre they bright and lofty visions,    Or neglected, gone astray?Matters not how great in fancy,     Or what deeds of skill you've wrought; Man, though high may be his station,     Is no better than his thoughts. Catch your thoughts and hold them tightly,    Let each one an honor be; Purge them, scourge them, burnish brightly,    Then in love set each one free.References:Chand SP, Kuckel DP, Huecker MR. Cognitive Behavior Therapy. [Updated 2023 May 23]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470241/(2025, March 5). Overview - Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). nhs.uk. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/overview/ 

Send us a textDescription: A review of the highlights from the Fall 2024 edition of IntimaWebsite:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:Changing the Bag by Paul Shovlin: https://www.theintima.org/changing-the-bag-paul-shovlin Dear Rescue Worker by Joan Roger: https://www.theintima.org/dear-rescue-worker-joan-roger Inscribed on a Pill Box by Maya Klauber: https://www.theintima.org/inscribed-on-a-pill-box-maya-klauber Omens by Ryan Boyland: https://www.theintima.org/omens-ryan-boyland Harmonic Helix by Anna Hostal: https://www.theintima.org/harmonic-helix-by-anna-hostal Migraine Nymph with Aura by Elizabeth Baxmeyer: A Being from the Land of Triptan https://www.theintima.org/migraine-nymph-with-aura-elizabeth-baxmeyer White Coat Ceremony by Angela Tang Tan: https://www.theintima.org/white-coat-ceremony-angela-tang-tan  

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy with reflection on incontinence, caregivers, and existential distress.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.Special arrangements were also made for his stools, and this was a torment to him each time. A torment in its uncleanness, indecency, and smell, in the awareness that another person had to take part in it. But in this most unpleasant matter there also appeared a consolation for Ivan Ilyich. The butler's helper, Gerasim, always came to clear away after him. Gerasim was a clean, fresh young muzhik, grown sleek on town grub. Always cheerful, bright. At first the sight of this man, always clean, dressed Russian style, performing this repulsive chore, embarrassed Ivan Ilyich. Once, having gotten up from the commode and being unable to pull up his trousers, he collapsed into the soft armchair, looking with horror at his naked, strengthless thighs with their sharply outlined muscles. Gerasim, in heavy boots, spreading around him the pleasant smell of boot tar and the freshness of winter air, came in with a light, strong step, in a clean canvas apron and a clean cotton shirt, the sleeves rolled up on his bared, strong, young arms, and without looking at Ivan Ilyich¾obviously restraining the joy of life shining on his face, so as not to offend the sick man¾went to the commode. "Gerasim," Ivan Ilyich said weakly. Gerasim gave a start, evidently afraid he was remiss in something, and with a quick movement he turned to the sick man his fresh, kind, simple young face, only just beginning to sprout a beard. "What, sir?" "I suppose this must be unpleasant for you. Excuse me. I can't help it. " "Mercy, sir." And Gerasim flashed his eyes and bared his young, white teeth. "Why shouldn't I do it? It's a matter of you being sick." And with his deft, strong hands he did his usual business and went out, stepping lightly. And five minutes later, stepping just as lightly, he came back.References: The Death of Ivan Ilyich: https://web.stanford.edu/~jsabol/existentialism/materials/tolstoy_death_ilyich.pdf Tolstoy, Leo, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories (Vintage, 2010) Charlton B, Verghese A. Caring for Ivan Ilyich. J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Jan;25(1):93-5. Lucas V. The death of Ivan Ilyich and the concept of 'total pain'. Clin Med (Lond). 2012 Dec;12(6):601-2.

Send us a textE45 Long Neglect Has Worn Away by Emily Bronte Description: An immersive reading of Long Neglect Has Worn Away by Emily Bronte with reflection on transience and permeance, tuberculosis and facial maladies. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:[Long Neglect Has Worn Away] by Emily BronteLong neglect has worn awayHalf the sweet enchanting smile;Time has turned the bloom to gray;Mold and damp the face defile.But that lock of silky hair,Still beneath the picture twined,Tells what once those features were,Paints their image on the mind.Fair the hand that traced that line,“Dearest, ever deem me true”;Swiftly flew the fingers fineWhen the pen that motto drew.References:Emily Bronte: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-bronte Bansal R, Jain A, Mittal S. Orofacial tuberculosis: Clinical manifestations, diagnosis and management. J Family Med Prim Care. 2015 Jul-Sep;4(3):335-41.Quaranta N, Petrone P, Michailidou A, Miragliotta L, Santantonio M, Del Prete R, Mosca A, Miragliotta G. Tuberculous otitis media with facial paralysis: a clinical and microbiological diagnosis-a case report. Case Rep Infect Dis. 2011;2011:932608.

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of Tanka and Haiku by Sadakichi Hartmann with reflection on tanka, haiku, and aging. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:Tanka and Haiku by Sadakichi HartmannTanka IXWere we able to tell When old age would come our way,We would muffle the bell,Lock the door and go awayLet him call some other dayHaikai IVOh, red maple leaves,There seem more of you these eves Than ever grew on treesReferences:Tanka and Haikai: 14 Japanese Rhythms (Author's Edition, 1916): https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/007ef74e882c8829c0ec2e7f7eac2f6b.pdf  Sadakichi Hartman: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sadakichi-hartmann Sadakichi Hartman: https://aaww.org/sadakichi-hartmann-missing-link/ Tanka: https://poets.org/glossary/tanka Haiku: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/haiku-or-hokku 

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of A Prayer to the Asvins by Ghosha translated by H. D. Griswold with reflection on physician gods, Gosha, leprosy, praise and gift exchange. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work: A Prayer to the AsvinsGhosha translated by H. D. GriswoldYour car, the swiftly-rolling:, circumambient,To be saluted day and night by worshippers,Asvins, that car of yours we here invoke,Just as the name of father, easy to entreat.Arouse the lovely hymns and make our thoughts to swell,Stir up abundant riches, — that is our desire ;Make glorious our heritage, ye Asvin pair ;Yea, make us for our princes like the Soma dear.Ye are good luck for her who groweth old at home ; The slow — yea even the slowest one — ye help him on ; Ye two are called physicians, healers of the blind,Yea of the feeble and the one with broken limbs.I call to you, O Asvins, listen to my cry,And give your help to me as parents to a son ; Friendless am I, bereft of relative, and poor,Save me, O save me from the curse which rests on me.Upon your chariot ye did bring to Vimada,To be his consort, Purumitra's lovely maid ;Came to the weakling's wife in answer to her call.And to Puramdhi gave the boon of motherhood.Unto the singer Kali, who had reached old age,Ye gave anew the boon of fresh and youthful strength ; 'Twas you that lifted Vandana from out the pit ;Ye gave to Vispala the power at once to walk.[...]Come on that chariot which is speedier than thought. That chariot, Asvins, which the Ribhus built for you; On yoking which the daughter of the sky is born.And from Vivasvat the auspicious day and night.This praise-song have we made for you, O Asvins, Have fashioned it as Bhrigus build a wagon ;Have decked it as the bride is for the bridegroom, Presenting it to you as our own offspring.References:Poem: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.110065/page/n49/mode/2up Wendy Doniger. Hindu Myths Penguin Classics 1975https://chs.harvard.edu/douglas-frame-the-myth-of-return-in-early-greek-epic-6-evidence-for-the-meaning-of-the-indo-european-root-nes/ Cartwright, M. (2016, June 30). Ashvins. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Ashvins/  Rig Veda: http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-rvs:rv10-h30 Hyde, L. (2007). The gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. Vintage.

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of Hope by Joseph Zarconi with reflection on hope, goal concordant care, chemotherapy, and patients with young children. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comReferences:Zarconi J. Hope. Ann Intern Med. 2024 Apr;177(4):541https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-2289 Feldman DB, Corn BW. Hope and cancer. Curr Opin Psychol. 2023 Feb;49:101506.

Send us a textDescription: An immersive reading of On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf with reflection on language, health humanities and bipolar disorder.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.comWork:Excerpts from On Being Ill by Virginia WoolfFinally, to hinder the description of illness in literature, there is the poverty of the language. English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache. It has all grown one way. The merest schoolgirl, when she falls in love, has Shakespeare or Keats to speak her mind for her; but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry. There is nothing ready made for him. He is forced to coin words himself, and, taking his pain in one hand, and a lump of pure sound in the other (as perhaps the people of Babel did in the beginning), so to crush them together that a brand-new word in the end drops out. Probably it will be something laughable. […] Yet it is not only a new language that we need, more primitive, more sensual, more obscene, but a new hierarchy of the passions; love must be deposed in favour of a temperature of 104; jealousy give place to the pangs of sciatica; sleeplessness play the part of villain, and the hero become a white liquid with a sweet taste—that mighty Prince with the moths' eyes and the feathered feet, one of whose names is Chloral.References:On Being Ill: https://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500221h.html#ch3 Bantel C, Sörös P. On pain - Virginia Woolf and the language of poets and patients. Br J Pain. 2021 Nov;15(4):497-500.Munday I, Kneebone I, Newton-John T. The language of chronic pain. Disabil Rehabil. 2021 Feb;43(3):354-361. Pett S. Rash Reading: Rethinking Virginia Woolf's On Being Ill. Lit Med. 2019;37(1):26-66. Dalsimer K. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). Am J Psychiatry. 2004 May;161(5):809. Koutsantoni K. Manic depression in literature: the case of Virginia Woolf. Med Humanit. 2012 Jun;38(1):7-14.Bazin, N. T. (1994). Postmortem diagnoses of Virginia Woolf's 'madness': The precarious quest for truth. In B. M. Rieger (Ed.), Dionysus in literature: Essays on literary madness (pp. 133-147). Bowling Green State University Popular Press. 

Send us a Text Message.Description: An immersive reading of Sonnet – To Science by Edgar Allen Poe with reflection on sonnets, science, and Greek and Roman mythology. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Sonnet—To ScienceBy Edgar Allen PoeScience! true daughter of Old Time thou art!   Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,   Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,   Who wouldst not leave him in his wanderingTo seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,   Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,   And driven the Hamadryad from the woodTo seek a shelter in some happier star?   Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,The Elfin from the green grass, and from meThe summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?References:Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48625/sonnet-to-science Hirsch, E. (1999). How to read a poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry. HarperCollins. Sonnet: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70051/learning-the-sonnet 

Send us a Text Message.Description: An immersive reading of Open Windows by Sara Teasdale with reflection on mobility, pain, trees and wonder.  Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Open Windowsby Sara Teasdale Out of the window a sea of green treesLift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"But I cannot answer.I am alone with Weakness and Pain,Sick abed and June is going,I cannot keep her, she hurries byWith the silver-green of her garments blowing.Men and women pass in the streetGlad of the shining sapphire weather,But we know more of it than they,Pain and I together.They are the runners in the sun,Breathless and blinded by the race,But we are watchers in the shadeWho speak with Wonder face to face.References:Sara Teasdale: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sara-teasdale Ulrich RS. View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. Science. 1984 Apr 27;224(4647):420-1.Mihandoust S, Joseph A, Kennedy S, MacNaughton P, Woo M. Exploring the Relationship between Window View Quantity, Quality, and Ratings of Care in the Hospital. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Oct 12;18(20):10677.

Send us a Text Message.Description: An immersive reading of two poems, ‘Suicide's Note' and ‘Sick Room,' by  Langston Hughes with reflection on suicide, locations of illness and the personification of death.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Suicide's NoteBy Langston HughesThe calm,Cool face of the riverAsked me for a kiss.Sick RoomBy Langston HughesHow quietIt is in this sick roomWhere on the bedA silent woman lies between two lovers—Life and Death,And all three covered with a sheet of pain.References:The Weary Blues: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues Langston Hughes: https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes Harkup, K. (2020). Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, stabbings and Broken hearts.Novotney, A. (2020, March 24). The risks of social isolation. Monitor on Psychology, 50(5). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation 

Description: An immersive reading of excerpts from Arabian Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane with reflection on leprosy, the ideal clinician and cutaneous treatments.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:The Story of King Yoonan and the Sage Dooban from The Thousand and One Nights attributed to Scheherazade with translation by Edward William Lane. in former times, in the country of the Persians, a monarch who was called King Yoonán, possessing great treasures and numerous forces, valiant, and having troops of every description; but he was afflicted with leprosy, which the physicians and sages had failed to remove; neither their potions, nor powders, nor ointments were of any benefit to him; and none of the physicians was able to cure him. At length there arrived at the city of this king a great sage, stricken in years, who was called the sage Doobán: he was acquainted with ancient Greek, Persian, modern Greek, Arabic, and Syriac books, and with medicine and astrology, both with respect to their scientific principles and the rules of their practical applications for good and evil; as well as the properties of plants, dried and fresh, the injurious and the useful: he was versed in the wisdom of the philosophers, and embraced a knowledge of all the medical and other sciences. […]He […] hired a house, in which he deposited his books, and medicines, and drugs. Having done this, he selected certain of his medicines and drugs, and made a goff-stick, with a hollow handle, into which he introduced them; after which he made a ball for it, skillfully adapted; and on the following day, after he had finished these, he went again to the King, and kissed the ground before him, and directed him to repair to the horse-course, and to play with the ball and goff-stick. The King, attended by his Emeers and Chamberlains and Wezeers, went thither, and, as soon as he arrived there, the sage Doobán presented himself before him, and handed to him the goff-stick, saying, Take this goff-stick, and grasp it thus, and ride along the horse-course, and strike the ball with it with all thy force, until the palm of thy hand and thy whole body become moist with perspiration, when the medicine will penetrate into thy hand, and pervade thy whole body; and when thou hast done this, and the medicine remains in thee, return to thy palace, and enter the bath, and wash thyself, and sleep: then shalt thou find thyself cured: and peace be on thee.References:1001 Nights: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34206/34206-h/34206-h.htm  Leprosy: https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/index.html Grzybowski A, Nita M. Leprosy in the Bible. Clin Dermatol. 2016 Jan-Feb;34(1):3-7. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2015.10.003. Epub 2015 Nov 17.Eather N, Wade L, Pankowiak A, Eime R. The impact of sports participation on mental health and social outcomes in adults: a systematic review and the 'Mental Health through Sport' conceptual model.Oja P, Titze S, Kokko S, Kujala UM, Heinonen A, Kelly P, Koski P, Foster C. Health benefits of different sport disciplines for adults: systematic review of observational and intervention studies with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2015 Apr;49(7):434-40.

Description: An immersive reading of Spring and All Poem XVI by William Carlos Williams with reflection on signs of illness, jaundice, liver failure, onomatopoeia and poetic apostrophe. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Spring and All, Poem XVIBy William Carlos WilliamsO tonguelickingthe sore onher netherlipO toppled bellyO passionate cottonstuck withmatted hairelysian slobberfrom her mouthuponthe folded handkerchiefI can't die--moaned the oldjaundiced womanrolling hersaffron eyeballsI can't dieI can't dieReferences:Spring and All:https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0881/Spring%2520and%2520All-WCW.pdf  orhttps://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781513283029 William Carlos Williams: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams  Poetic Apostrophe: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/apostrophe-literary-device-meaning Baughn RE, Musher DM. Secondary syphilitic lesions. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2005 Jan;18(1):205-16.Health Quality Ontario. In-home care for optimizing chronic disease management in the community: an evidence-based analysis. Ont Health Technol Assess Ser. 2013 Sep 1;13(5):1-65. NB Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore

Description: An immersive reading of A Field of Trilliums by Lori-Anne Noyahr first published in Ars Medica in 2023 with reflection on brain death, anesthesia, liminality and sounds. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Noyahr, L.-A. (2023). A Field of Trilliums. Ars Medica, 17(2), 3 pp. Retrieved from https://ars-medica.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2131 References:De Georgia MA. History of brain death as death: 1968 to the present. J Crit Care. 2014 Aug;29(4):673-8.

Description: An immersive reading of Sippokni Sia by Winnie Lewis Gravitt with reflection on the Choctaw Indian Tribe, code switching, aging and the grandmother effect.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Sippokni SiaWinnie Lewis GravittI am old, Sippokni sia.Before my eyes run many years,Like panting runners in a race.Like a weary runner, the years lag;Eyes grow dim, blind with wood smoke;A handkerchief binds my head,For I am old. Sippokni sia.Hands, once quick to weave and spin;Strong to fan the tanchi;Fingers patient to shape dirt bowls;Loving to sew hunting shirt;Now, like oak twigs twisted.I sit and rock my grandson.I am old. Sippokni sia.Feet swift as wind o'er young cane shoots;Like stirring leaves in ta falla dance;Slim like rabbits in leather shoes;Now moves like winter snows,Like melting snows on the Cavanaugh.In the door I sit, my feet in spring water.I am old. Sippokni sia.Black like crow's feather, my hair.Long and straight like hanging rope;My people proud and young.Now like hickory ashes in my hair,Like ashes of old camp fire in rain.Much civilization bow my people;Sorrow, grief and trouble sit like blackbirds on fence.I am old. Sippokni sia hoke.References:Winnie Lewis Gravitt: https://poets.org/poet/winnie-lewis-gravitt  https://dictionary.choctawnation.com/word/Coall DA, Hertwig R. Grandparental investment: past, present, and future. Behav Brain Sci. 2010 Feb;33(1):1-19; discussion 19-40.

Description: An immersive reading of King Lear by William Shakespeare with reflection on dementia, storms and caregivers.  Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:King Lear by William Shakespeare  Act 3 Scene 1 lines 1-20KENT  Who's there, besides foul weather?GENTLEMAN One minded like the weather, most unquietly.KENT  I know you. Where's the King?GENTLEMAN Contending with the fretful elements;Bids the wind blow the earth into the seaOr swell the curlèd waters 'bove the main,That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rageCatch in their fury and make nothing of;Strives in his little world of man to outscornThe to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch,The lion and the belly-pinchèd wolfKeep their fur dry, unbonneted he runsAnd bids what will take all.KENT  But who is with him?GENTLEMAN None but the Fool, who labors to outjestHis heart-struck injuries.References:King Lear (electronic): https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/read/ King Lear (print): https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9781501118111 NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore Ottilingam S. The psychiatry of King Lear. Indian J Psychiatry. 2007 Jan;49(1):52-5. 

An immersive reading of excerpts from Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag with reflection on cancer, tuberculosis, metaphors and myths. References:Illness as Metaphor:  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780312420130 NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore Curran J. Illness as Metaphor; AIDS and its Metaphors. BMJ. 2007 Sep 8;335(7618):517.Clow B. Who's afraid of Susan Sontag? Or, the myths and metaphors of cancer reconsidered. Soc Hist Med. 2001 Aug;14(2):293-312.Oransky I. Susan Sontag. Lancet. 2005 Feb 5-11;365(9458):468. Diniz G, Korkes L, Tristão LS, Pelegrini R, Bellodi PL, Bernardo WM. The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2023 Aug 11;21:eRW0371.Boggiss AL, Consedine NS, Brenton-Peters JM, Hofman PL, Serlachius AS. A systematic review of gratitude interventions: Effects on physical health and health behaviors. J Psychosom Res. 2020 Aug;135:110165. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110165.

Description: An immersive viewing of Calavera Catrina by Jose Guadalupe Posada with reflection on skeletons, Halloween and the Day of the Dead. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/47687 References:Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993. https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281  Posada's Mexico edited by Ron Tylerhttps://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173023529665&view=1up&seq=11 

Description: An immersive reading of Sassafras Tea by Effie Lee Newsome with reflection on tea rituals, herbal remedies, the good and hindsight. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Sassafras TeaBy Effie Lee NewsomeThe sass'fras tea is red and clear In my white china cup, So pretty I keep peeping in Before I drink it up.I stir it with a silver spoon, And sometimes I just hold A little tea inside the spoon, Like it was lined with gold.It makes me hungry just to smell The nice hot sass'fras tea, And that's the one thing I really like That they say's good for me.References:Effie Lee Newsome: https://poets.org/poet/effie-lee-newsome  Sassafras Tea: https://poets.org/poem/sassafras-tea Caroling Dusk: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=zeabook Noé, J. (2002). Chapter 10 Ethnomedicine of the cherokee: Historical and current applications. In Advances in Phytomedicine (Vol. 1, pp. 125-131). Elsevier B.V.Elizabeth A. Hausner, Robert H. Poppenga.  Editor(s): Michael E. Peterson, Patricia A. Talcott, (2013) Chapter 26 Hazards Associated with the Use of Herbal and Other Natural Products. In Small Animal Toxicology (Third Edition, pp 335-356) W.B. Saunders,Sloan Kettering: https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/sassafrasHilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, Apaydin E, Xenakis L, Newberry S, Colaiaco B, Maher AR, Shanman RM, Sorbero ME, Maglione MA. Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Ann Behav Med. 2017 Apr;51(2):199-213. Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, Gill JM. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5-16.Black DS, Slavich GM. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24.Charlton A. Medicinal uses of tobacco in history. J R Soc Med. 2004 Jun;97(6):292-6.

Description: An immersive reading of Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath Tagore with reflection on healthful dust, allergies, shared decision making, white coats and scrubs.  Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work:Gitanjali 8 by Rabindranath TagoreThe child who is decked with prince's robes and who has jewelled chains round his neck loses all pleasure in his play; his dress hampers him at every step.In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust he keeps himself from the world, and is afraid even to move.Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.References: Gitanjali https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7164/pg7164-images.html  Rabindranath Tagore https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore  Blumenthal-Barby J, Opel DJ, Dickert NW, Kramer DB, Tucker Edmonds B, Ladin K, Peek ME, Peppercorn J, Tilburt J. Potential Unintended Consequences Of Recent Shared Decision Making Policy Initiatives. Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 Nov;38(11):1876-1881.Lambrecht, B., Hammad, H. The immunology of the allergy epidemic and the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Immunol 18, 1076–1083 (2017).Pfefferle PI, Keber CU, Cohen RM, Garn H. The Hygiene Hypothesis - Learning From but Not Living in the Past. Front Immunol. 2021 Mar 16;12:635935.Haahtela T. A biodiversity hypothesis. Allergy. 2019 Aug;74(8):1445-1456.O'Donnell VR, Chinelatto LA, Rodrigues C, Hojaij FC. A brief history of medical uniforms: from ancient history to the COVID-19 time. Rev Col Bras Cir. 2020 Jun 8;47:e20202597.Sood, S. (2023, July 10). Fashion-based medicine: A history of western doctors' dress - hektoen internationalShefali Sood. Hektoen International - An online medical humanities journal. https://hekint.org/2023/07/10/fashion-based-medicine-a-history-of-western-doctors-dress/

Description: An immersive reading of an excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott with reflection on symptoms and treatments for the common cold and the clinician patient relationship. Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ Work: excerpt from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott  Two nights ago I showed up to teach my class with a raw chest and a raging sore throat, that kind that feels like cancer of the trachea. I happen to have two doctors in this class, and one of them tried to assure me that it probably wasn't tracheal cancer, that in fact the viral cloud of mid-autumn had descended and many people were having similar symptoms. The other doctor recommended drinking really, really hot water. "Hot water?" I said. "Hot water? I should be home hooked up to an epidural, drinking codeine cough syrup, and you're prescribing hot water?" Then I threatened to lower his grade. (Of course, this is not a graded workshop, so my students tend to roll their eyes when I threaten them.) At the break, that doctor brought me a cup of boiling water, as though for tea but without the tea bag, and I drank it. My throat and chest stopped aching about twenty seconds later. I hate that. References:Bird by Bird: https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780385480017 https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/otc-pharmaceuticals/cold-cough-remedies/united-states Earn DJ, Andrews PW, Bolker BM. Population-level effects of suppressing fever. Proc Biol Sci. 2014 Jan 22;281(1778):20132570.Jaume F, Valls-Mateus M, Mullol J. Common Cold and Acute Rhinosinusitis: Up-to-Date Management in 2020. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2020 Jun 3;20(7):28.Spector SL. The common cold: current therapy and natural history. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1995 May;95(5 Pt 2):1133-8.NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

Description: An immersive reading of an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton with reflection on Nahuatl poetry, memento mori, and flowers.Website:https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/  Work: Excerpts from an untitled poem by King Nezahualcoyotl translated by Daniel Brinton1. The fleeting pomps of the world are like the green willow trees, which, aspiring to permanence, are consumed by a fire, fall before the axe, are upturned by the wind, or are scarred and saddened by age.2. The grandeurs of life are like the flowers in color and in fate. […]3. The delicious realms of flowers count their dynasties by short periods; those which in the morning revel proudly in beauty and strength, by evening weep for the sad destruction of their thrones, and for the mishaps which drive them to loss, to poverty, to death and to the grave. All things of earth have an end.  […]4. […] nothing is so perfect that it does not fall and disappear. […]5. The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sate upon thrones […]6. […] Were I to introduce you into the obscure bowels of this temple, and were to ask you which of these bones were those of the powerful Achalchiuhtlanextin, first chief of the ancient Toltecs; […] if I continued thus questioning about all our august ancestors, what would you reply? The same that I reply—I know not, I know not; for first and last are confounded in the common clay. What was their fate shall be ours, and of all who follow us.7. Unconquered princes, warlike chieftains, let us seek, let us sigh for the heaven, for there all is eternal, and nothing is corruptible. The darkness of the sepulchre is but the strengthening couch for the glorious sun, and the obscurity of the night but serves to reveal the brilliancy of the stars. References:Poem: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12219/12219-h/12219-h.htm#S_10 Miller ME Taube KA. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya : An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. New York: Thames and Hudson; 1993.  https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780500279281 Noonan E, Little M, Kerridge I. Return of the memento mori: imaging death in public health. J R Soc Med. 2013 Dec;106(12):475-7. doi: 10.1177/0141076813495828. Epub 2013 Sep 11. PMID: 24025227; PMCID: PMC3842855.Mexica vs Aztec https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/you-are-no-longer-called-aztecs-you-are-mexica NB: Tattered Cover is a local Denver bookstore 

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 DePewThose who die and then return areoften silentwhich has never once been attributed tohaving seen godsometimes when I come backI do not speaksometimes when I come backI smell on my children's breaththe tinge of flesh left too long unfedsinew without nervewe are lightning set to smolderI know that nowbefore I left I was toldthat the sun and the moon were too heavy forthe same skyI was not told that death would lingerI was not told that the river Styx was pettyand bureaucratic I was not toldthat I would always see theasphodel in its upperworld daffodil shadowsand never again fit like salt into water inthis living world with itsolive trees and vineyardsand chamomile tea in the eveningI belong to another worldone that does not know what to makeof such thingsReferencesAlcestis: 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 DePewhttps://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 HarperHe stood beside his dying child,With a dim and bloodshot eye;They'd won him from the haunts of viceTo see his first-born dieHe 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 recognitionLit 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 lipsFaltered and died each word.And burning tears like rainPoured down his bloated face,Where guilt, remorse and shameHad 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 goBright 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 heldHis first-born and his dead!The marble brow, with golden curls,Lay lifeless on his breast;Like sunbeams on the distant cloudsWhich 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 LiuA 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-Poxby 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 Nightingaleby John KeatsMy 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;ReferencesOde 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 PoolBy 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.WorkSprin' 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'. ReferencesThe 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 ."Dialect Poetry ." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. . Encyclopedia.com. 6 Oct. 2022 .“Paul Laurence Dunbar” Poetry Foundation. . 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. ReferencesWonderful 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.

Description: An immersive viewing of The Broken Column by Frida Kahlo reflection on serious illness, chronic pain, medical gaze and resilience.  Artwork: The Broken Column: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broken_Column References: Herrera, Hayden. Frida Kahlo: The Paintings. Harper Perennial. 2002.Kahlo, Frida. The Diary of Frida Kahlo: an Intimate Self-Portrait. Abrams. 2005.Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(19):1444–1453. Budrys V. Neurological deficits in the life and works of Frida Kahlo. Eur Neurol. 2006;55(1):4-10. 

Description: An immersive reading ‘O could my wandering breeze-pinioned mind' by Henry Derozio with reflection on anxiety and therapyPoem:O! could my wandering, breeze-pinioned mind  True brotherhood in earthborn spirit find.  One that might ever on unflagging wings  Companion me in my imaginings,  One that from earth could take its earthliness.  And robe it with the mind's own light — 'twould bless  The wheeling of existence — we should rise  Like wild twin comets hurrying through the skies,  Or swift as starshoots dart into the chasms  Of earlier planets. These enthusiasms  Which ceaseless glow in my volcanic brain.  Because unshared, have ever brought me pain,  And left my mind in dark, despairing mood  To feel, and think upon its solitude. — ReferencesHenry Derozio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Vivian_Derozio Sonnet: https://scalar.lehigh.edu/derozio/sonnet-o-could-my-wandering-breeze-pinioned-mind?path=fakeer-of-jungheera-a-metrical-tale-and-other-poems-1828 Grech T, Marks A. Existential Suffering Part 1: Definition and Diagnosis. Fast Facts.  https://www.mypcnow.org/fast-fact/existential-suffering-part-1-definition-and-diagnosis/  Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, Zhang H, Duan NY, Shi YT, Wei GX, Li YF. The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Front Psychol. 2017 Jun 6;8:874.Coombs NC, Meriwether WE, Caringi J, Newcomer SR. Barriers to healthcare access among U.S. adults with mental health challenges: A population-based study. SSM Popul Health. 2021;15:100847.

Description: An immersive reading of excerpts from ‘Aurora Leigh' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning with reflection on the benefits of illness, social determinants of health and discharging people experiencing homelessness. WorkShe stirred;—the place seemed new and strange as death.The white strait bed, with others strait and white,Like graves dug side by side, at measured lengths,And quiet people walking in and outWith wonderful low voices and soft steps,And apparitional equal care for each,Astonished her with order, silence, law:And when a gentle hand held out a cup,She took it, as you do at sacrament,[…]I think it frets the saints in heaven to seeHow many desolate creatures on the earthHave learnt the simple dues of fellowshipAnd social comfort, in a hospital,As Marian did. She lay there, stunned, half tranced,And wished, at intervals of growing sense,She might be sicker yet, if sickness madeThe world so marvellous kind, the air so hushed,And all her wake-time quiet as a sleep;[…]She lay and seethed in fever many weeks,But youth was strong and overcame the test;Revolted soul and flesh were reconciledAnd fetched back to the necessary dayAnd daylight duties. She could creep aboutThe long bare rooms, and stare out drearilyFrom any narrow window on the street,Till some one, who had nursed her as a friend,Said coldly to her, as an enemy,‘She had leave to go next week, being well enough,'While only her heart ached. ‘Go next week,' thought she,‘Next week! how would it be with her next week,Let out into that terrible street aloneAmong the pushing people, ... to go ... where?' References Aurora Leigh: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/56621/56621-h/56621-h.htm Elizabeth Barret Browning: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning  Fitzpatrick-Lewis D, Ganann R, Krishnaratne S, Ciliska D, Kouyoumdjian F, Hwang SW. Effectiveness of interventions to improve the health and housing status of homeless people: a rapid systematic review. BMC Public Health. 2011;11:638.

An immersive reading of excerpts from ‘The South' by Jorge Louis Borges with reflection on the experience of critical illness, iatrogenesis and communication. Work:Fever wasted him and the pictures in The Thousand and One Nights served to illustrate nightmares. Friends and relatives paid him visits and, with exaggerated smiles, assured him that they thought he looked fine. Dahlmann listened to them with a kind of feeble stupor and he marveled at their not knowing that he was in hell. A week, eight days passed, and they were like eight centuries. One afternoon, the usual doctor appeared, accompanied by a new doctor, and they carried him off to a sanitarium on the Calle Ecuador, for it was necessary to Xray him. […] When he arrived at his destination, they undressed him, shaved his head, bound him with metal fastenings to a stretcher; they shone bright lights on him until he was blind and dizzy, auscultated him, and a masked man stuck a needle into his arm. He awoke with a feeling of nausea, covered with a bandage, in a cell with something of a well about it; in the days and nights which followed the operation he came to realize that he had merely been, up until then, in a suburb of hell. Ice in his mouth did not leave the least trace of freshness. During these days Dahlmann hated himself in minute detail: he hated his identity, his bodily necessities, his humiliation, the beard which bristled up on his face. He stoically endured the curative measures, which were painful, but when the surgeon told him he had been on the point of death from septicemia, Dahlmann dissolved in tears of self-pity for his fate. Physical wretchedness and the incessant anticipation of horrible nights had not allowed him time to think of anything so abstract as death.ReferencesThe South: https://www.medina502.com/classes/ml260_2017/readings/Borges-The_South.pdf Jorge Luis Borges: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jorge-luis-borges  An Autobiographical Essay: Newyorker https://www.gwern.net/docs/borges/1971-borges-anautobiographicalessay.pdf  Campbell C, Scott K, Skovdal M, Madanhire C, Nyamukapa C, Gregson S. A good patient? How notions of 'a good patient' affect patient-nurse relationships and ART adherence in Zimbabwe. BMC Infect Dis. 2015;15:404. Stollings JL, Kotfis K, Chanques G, Pun BT, Pandharipande PP, Ely EW. Delirium in critical illness: clinical manifestations, outcomes, and management. Intensive Care Med. 2021;47(10):1089-1103. Cutler LR, Hayter M, Ryan T. A critical review and synthesis of qualitative research on patient experiences of critical illness. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2013;29(3):147-157.

Description: An immersive reading of excerpts from ‘Three Thoughts' by  Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson with reflection on marginalization, the call to healthcare, courage and facing dragons. Work:experts from Three Thoughts' by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson "Who dares stand forth?" the monarch cried,"Amid the throng, and dare to giveTheir aid, and bid this wretch to live?I pledge my faith and crown beside,A woeful plight, a sorry sight,This outcast from all God-given grace.What, ho! in all, no friendly face,No helping hand to stay his plight?St. Peter's name be pledged for aye,The man's accursed, that is true;But ho, he suffers. None of youWill mercy show, or pity sigh?"Strong men drew back, and lordly trainDid slowly file from monarch's look,Whose lips curled scorn. But from a nookA voice cried out, "Though he has slainThat which I loved the best on earth,Yet will I tend him till he dies,I can be brave." A woman's eyesGazed fearlessly into his own.ReferencesViolets and Other Tales: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18713/18713-h/18713-h.htm#LEGEND_OF_THE_NEWSPAPER Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-moore-dunbar-nelson https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/incarceration.html  https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/why-prisoners-deserve-health-care/2008-02#:~:text=The%20vast%20majority%20of%20inmates,becoming%20a%20burden%20to%20all Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet: https://kbachuntitled.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rainer-maria-rilke-letters-to-a-young-poet.pdf  

An immersive reading of excerpts from ‘The Botanic Garden Part II: The Loves of Plants' by Erasmus Darwin with reflection on dropsy, digitalis, heart failure and medical myths. Excerpts 415 Bolster'd with down, amid a thousand wants,        Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants;        "Quench me, ye cool pellucid rills!" he cries,        Wets his parch'd tongue, and rolls his hollow eyes.        So bends tormented TANTALUS to drink,420 While from his lips the refluent waters shrink;        Again the rising stream his bosom laves,        And Thirst consumes him 'mid circumfluent waves.        —Divine HYGEIA, from the bending sky        Descending, listens to his piercing cry;425 Assumes bright DIGITALIS' dress and air,        Her ruby cheek, white neck, and raven hair;        Four youths protect her from the circling throng,        And like the Nymph the Goddess steps along.—        —O'er Him She waves her serpent-wreathed wand,430 Cheers with her voice, and raises with her hand,        Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan,        And charms the shapeless monster into man.Reference https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10671 (Lines 415-432) Accessed 1.15.22Thibodeau JT, Turer AT, Gualano SK, et al. Characterization of a novel symptom of advanced heart failure: bendopnea. JACC Heart Fail. 2014;2(1):24-31.Falk RH. "Bendopnea" or "kamptopnea?": Some thoughts on terminology and mechanisms. JACC Heart Fail. 2014 Aug;2(4):425.Littler WA. Withering, Darwin and digitalis. QJM. 2019 Dec 1;112(12):887-890.Littler WA. William Withering digitalis and the pulse. QJM. 2019 Aug 1;112(8):565-566Smulyan H. The Beat Goes On: The Story of Five Ageless Cardiac Drugs. Am J Med Sci. 2018 Nov;356(5):441-450.Krikler DM. Withering and the foxglove: the making of a myth. Br Heart J. 1985;54(3):256-257. doi:10.1136/hrt.54.3.256Wilcox RA , Whitham EM. The symbol of modern medicine: why one snake is more than two. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138:673–677.Rogers, Kara. "Guinea Worm Disease". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jul. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/science/guinea-worm-disease. Accessed 21 February 2022.

An immersive reading of excerpts from the short story ‘Iron Routine' by Zitkála-Šá with reflection on healthcare disparities, authority and antagonists. Excerpts‘Iron Routine' by Zitkála-ŠáA paleface woman, with a yellow-covered roll book open on her arm and a gnawed pencil in her hand, appeared at the door. Her small, tired face was coldly lighted with a pair of large gray eyes.She stood still in a halo of authority, while over the rim of her spectacles her eyes pried nervously about the room. Having glanced at her long list of names and called out the first one, she tossed up her chin and peered through the crystals of her spectacles to make sure of the answer "Here."Relentlessly her pencil black-marked our daily records if we were not present to respond to our names, and no chum of ours had done it successfully for us. No matter if a dull headache or the painful cough of slow consumption had delayed the absentee, there was only time enough to mark the tardiness. It was next to impossible to leave the iron routine after the civilizing machine had once begun its day's buzzing; and as it was inbred in me to suffer in silence rather than to appeal to the ears of one whose open eyes could not see my pain, I have many times trudged in the day's harness heavy-footed, like a dumb sick brute.Once I lost a dear classmate. I remember well how she used to mope along at my side, until one morning she could not raise her head from her pillow. At her deathbed I stood weeping, as the paleface woman sat near her moistening the dry lips. Among the folds of the bedclothes I saw the open pages of the white man's Bible. The dying Indian girl talked disconnectedly of Jesus the Christ and the paleface who was cooling her swollen hands and feet.I grew bitter, and censured the woman for cruel neglect of our physical ills. I despised the pencils that moved automatically, and the one teaspoon which dealt out, from a large bottle, healing to a row of variously ailing Indian children. I blamed the hard-working, well-meaning, ignorant woman who was inculcating in our hearts her superstitious ideas. ReferenceAmerican Indian Stories: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10376 Thierry J, Brenneman G, Rhoades E, Chilton L. History, law, and policy as a foundation for health care delivery for American Indian and Alaska native children. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2009 Dec;56(6):1539-59.Rhoades ER, Rhoades DA. The public health foundation of health services for American Indians & Alaska Natives. Am J Public Health. 2014 Jun;104 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):S278-85. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301767. Epub 2014 Apr 23. https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/ Accessed 1.17.22Kovich H. Rural Matters - Coronavirus and the Navajo Nation. N Engl J Med. 2020 Jul 9;383(2):105-107. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2012114. Epub 2020 Apr 24.

Description: An immersive reading of the poem ‘On Pain' by Kahlil Gibran reflecting on total pain and spirituality in healthcare. PoemOn Pain by Kahlil Gibran And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.     And he said:     Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.     Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.     And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;     And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.     And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.      Much of your pain is self-chosen.     It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.     Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:     For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,     And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.  ReferencesThe Prophet: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58585  Zuskin E, Lipozencić J, Pucarin-Cvetković J, Mustajbegović J, Schachter N, Mucić-Pucić B, Neralić-Meniga I. Ancient medicine--a review. Acta Dermatovenerol Croat. 2008;16(3):149-57.Shinall MC Jr, Stahl D, Bibler TM. Addressing a Patient's Hope for a Miracle. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2018 Feb;55(2):535-539.Puchalski CM. The role of spirituality in health care. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2001;14(4):352-357. https://www.mypcnow.org/fast-fact/total-pain/ Accessed 12.24.21https://poets.org/poet/kahlil-gibran Accessed 12.25.21https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier Accessed 12.31.21

An immersive reading of the poem ‘A Visit to the Asylum' by Edna St. Vincent Millay reflecting on mental institutions and windows.Poem:A Visit to the Asylum            Edna St. Vincent Millay Once from a big, big building, When I was small, small, The queer folk in the windows Would smile at me and call.        And in the hard wee gardens Such pleasant men would hoe: “Sir, may we touch the little girl's hair!”— It was so red, you know.        They cut me coloured asters With shears so sharp and neat, They brought me grapes and plums and pears And pretty cakes to eat.        And out of all the windows, No matter where we went, The merriest eyes would follow me And make me compliment.        There were a thousand windows, All latticed up and down. And up to all the windows, When we went back to town,        The queer folk put their faces, As gentle as could be; “Come again, little girl!” they called, and I Called back, “You come see me!”References: Pérez-Fernández F, López-Muñoz F. The Kirkbride buildings in contemporary culture (1850-2015): from 'moral management' to horror films. Hist Psychiatry. 2019 Sep;30(3):336-351.https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/31/scary-asylums-are-halloween-classic-its-time-retire-trope/ Accessed 11/4/2021

An immersive reading of excerpts from the novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro with reflection on professional caregivers, burnout and scapegoats. ExcerptsIt means a lot to me, being able to do my work well, especially that bit about my donors staying “calm.” I've developed a kind of instinct around donors. I know when to hang around and comfort them, when to leave them to themselves; when to listen to everything they have to say, and when just to shrug and tell them to snap out of it. […] I know carers, working now, who are just as good and don't get half the credit. If you're one of them, I can understand how you might get resentful. […] Carers aren't machines. You try and do your best for every donor, but in the end, it wears you down. You don't have unlimited patience and energy.  (P3-4) […] And sooner or later a donor doesn't make it even though, say, it's only the second donation and no one anticipated complications. When a donor completes like that, out of the blue, it doesn't make much difference what the nurses say to you afterwards […] For a while at least, you're demoralised. Some of us learn pretty quick how to deal with it. But others [...] they never do. […] A lot of them, you can tell, are just going through the motions, waiting for the day they're told they can stop […] They don't know what to say to the whitecoats, they can't make themselves speak up on behalf of their donor. No wonder they end up feeling frustrated and blaming themselves when things go wrong. I try not to make a nuisance of myself, but I've figured out how to get my voice heard when I have to. And when things go badly, of course I'm upset, but at least I can feel I've done all I could and keep things in perspective. (p207- 208)ReferencesKazuo Ishiguro, Never let me go, Vintage Books. NY 2005.Travers JL, Teitelman AM, Jenkins KA, Castle NG. Exploring social-based discrimination among nursing home certified nursing assistants. Nurs Inq. 2020 Jan;27(1):e12315.Emily Paulin. COVID-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes Plummet, Staff and PPE Shortages Persist. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2021/nursing-home-covid-deaths-down-shortages-continue.html Published 3/11/2021. Accessed 10/17/2021.  Kandelman N, Mazars T, Levy A. Risk factors for burnout among caregivers working in nursing homes. J Clin Nurs. 2018 Jan;27(1-2):e147-e153. Brene Brown. Daring Greatly. Gotham Books. 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/health/nursing-homes-covid-vaccine-mandate.html Accessed 10/21/21. https://www.aapacn.org/article/covid-19-staff-vaccination-rates-tips-from-facilities-that-achieved-90-100-percent/ Accessed 10/31/21. 

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. PoemTo 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.ReferencesFrom: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/409/409-h/409-h.htm Poems on Various Subjects Accessed 9.9.2021Fiscella 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.htm The 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 DickinsonMy 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 Mina Loy's poem ‘Parturition' about childbirth with an exploration of the themes of pain, motherhood and abstract language. 

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 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. 

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.