TTT: Heavyweights

Last week with Top Ten Tuesdays we discussed the best light and fun books. Recall that it was really difficult for me. I did find some really nice suggestions on some blogs (there are light books out that that don’t feature love and bunnies! Who woulda thunk it?), but today we discuss books addressing tough subjects, and

Death of a Childhood Friend

The thing about Facebook is that it keeps you in contact with people who otherwise may long have been forgotten. My parents and grandparents had to work a lot harder to keep in touch with their school friends – for us, it’s the click of a button. My parents may only have heard of the

“The Living are Getting Rarer”

Is it the dying season? I have never been on a rotation where quite so many people die. I am told that Internal Medicine “is just like that” – but it’s wasn’t like that last year. It feels sometimes that we are playing at being doctors. Take some bloods, give oxygen, intubate if necessary. But

Letter to the Lost

Hallo. Yesterday was Spring Day. We all know that spring only really begins 21 September, but that’s okay because 1 September always held a kind of magic. I recall prancing around in a tutu and butterfly wings on a miserable 1 September long ago. It didn’t matter that it was cold… it was Spring Day!

Book Tour and Giveaway: Praise of Motherhood

Phil Jourdan’s Praise of Motherhood is a memoir of sorts – a memoir of mourning. When his mother dies unexpectedly, Jourdan is left with memories of a mother who supported him through his troubled childhood, a mother who surely had some secret life, a mother who was his mother unabashed, regardless of any perceived faults.

Cryptococcal Meningitis: Opportunistic Vagrant

There are many bad ways to die. I’ve seen some of them. But one that perhaps haunts me most is the CLAT+ patients. The Human Cell Line Activation Test (CLAT) is one of the most common tests utilised to diagnose Cryptococcal Meningitis. Cryptococ is in itself quite commonly found throughout nature – for example in

Rest in Peace, Baby Boy

The law says that a dead body may not be left unattended until handed over to a coroner. I stared at the tiny grey body swaddled in blankets, waiting for the grieved mother to say her goodbyes. When she arrived, I wanted to cry with her. But who am I to cry for a baby

Delivery in the Lab

Our last day of autopsies today and I finally took a deep breath and asked my question: “Do you ever get pregnant mothers? Do you look at the babies?” Yes. Sometimes the pregnancy is an incidental finding, tiny 12-week old fetuses. Sometimes they pregnancy is almost term. They won’t usually dissect the fetus, but they

To gain manhood, to risk life

This past week, the eighth known Eastern Cape Xhosa initiate passed away due to complications from ritual circumcision. The circumcision rituals, known as Ulwaluko, are traditional within the Xhosa culture (and many other African cultures). The ceremonies signify the passage from boy to manhood.

On losing a patient

She was rude and obnoxious and certainly not our favourite patient; although I am sure it is inherent in the Oath that we are not to have favourites. She called us sister even if we weren’t nurses and refused to answer questions before being given a sip of water.