Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Modern medicine demystified: the doctor-patient relationship.


A patient’s welfare used to be a doctor’s primary concern, and a patient’s rights were secondary. Consideration of those rights now drives medical decision-making, and the patient, not the doctor, makes the decisions. You get to do what you want to do. That’s appropriate, but you should be careful. A ton of medical information is available to most of you, thanks primarily to the computer, but often it’s plain wrong, out-dated, or simple marketing. Acting upon such misinformation may do you more harm than good. You can manage your own care, but don’t do it without help. Take advantage of your doctor’s medical knowledge to assist you in developing your preferences. Before you decline or demand care, use your doctor as an educated consultant and make your decision an informed one.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Building a mystery: another excerpt

Ahead of him, every square inch of sand was smooth, like fresh poured cement scraped flat with a board. The ocean had denied Grandfou his moment of glory; it had scrubbed the beach. Between Sunday morning and now, those nonidentical twins, flood tide and ebb tide, had eradicated any signs of human traffic. After the rising tide had set-up a short drag to the dory and the murderer rowed off with his cargo, it ran farther up on the beach to erase the tracks. After the receding water had finished its further mopping, the whole process recycled just to make sure the clean-up job was complete. Such are the moonstruck machinations of spring tides.

Thursday, February 2, 2012