We got into the car, and with my Bluetooth connected, were assaulted with Christian gospel music.
My husband raised an eyebrow at me. He’s used to my rambling taste in music but this was new.
I grinned. “That was for my patient.”
Miss Mary came in every two weeks for chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. 77 years old, she rarely complained, but I did catch her wincing a few weeks ago. After a lot of probing it appeared she had a lot of pain which didn’t respond to Tylenol or ibuprofen.
I prescribed 5mg
of oxycodone for her, and she had reported that it worked well and she only took it during severe pain attacks.
But then she came in for chemo and the pains arrived. She didn’t have her oxycodone with her and we don’t have it in the clinic.
I gave her Tylenol and hot packs.
When she said that at home she usually lies down flat until the pain ends, I stretched out her armchair fully.
90 pounds didn’t work well to keep her armchair flat, so I settled my rear end near her head to keep the chair reclined with my weight.
She laughed through her pain.
The Tylenol-hotpack-recliner trifecta didn’t help. I pulled out my last resort and asked one of my staff nurses to close the radio she usually played in the infusion room.
“What is your favorite music?” I asked Miss Mary.
She smiled with her eyes closed. “Richard Smallwood.”
I turned it on and the room was filled with Christian gospel music.
Within minutes the lines on her face eased, and I eased off her recliner to get back to work.
• • •
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This arrived last night and I already finished it.
A must read for halachic people whose loved ones have a cancer diagnosis.
This covers so many topics in concise and readable language:
1. Cancer screenings: allowed, or actually mandatory? 2. Genetic cancer screening: allowed or mandatory? 3. Common cancer statistics and treatment modalities 4. Preventative surgeries or treatment: allowed or mandatory? 5. Halacha on medicine in general
6. Clinical trials: allowed or forbidden? When? What if you’re healthy and want to contribute to science? 7. Pain medicine: allowed, forbidden, or mandatory? 8. Palliative/hospice care 9. Goseis and end of life 10. DNR and DNI 11. Artificial nutrition 12. Healthcare proxies
If you condemn Israel for Palestinian suffering but you omit Hamas, you might just hate Jews.
If you fault Israel for Palestinian suffering but you omit Qatar’s role, you might just hate Jews.
If you condemn Palestinian suffering but you didn’t condemn the Hamas massacre, you might just hate Jews.
If you condemned Israel for blowing up a hospital and didn’t post a retraction and correction, you might just hate Jews.
If you didn’t condemn Islamic Jihad for their hospital bombing, you might just hate Jews.
If you provide armchair analysis on the most conflicted and contested region in the world without educating yourself on millennia of Jewish sufferings you might just hate Jews.
Many people are arguing that “context” is needed to understand the slaughter by Hamas.
As a student of Jewish history, I agree, and I offer context.
We start with the first expulsion of Jews in Israel, in 586 BCE by the Babylonians.
1/
Under the Persian ruler King Cyrus, Jews rebuilt their Temple and returned to Jerusalem for several hundred years.
The Romans captured the city and dispersed the Jews in 70 CE.
The Jewish people migrated west and south, living in Europe and North Africa for centuries.
2/
For 1,000 years they wander between the Middle East and Europe, building communities and scholarly works. Note that official Christian policy is to convert all Jews, expel them, or worse.