Dooley Noted: 9/29/2016 Formal anatomy instruction might be dying. Curricula are being cut all over the world in the instruction of anatomy to medical doctoral candidates. I’m part of some of these curricula. I’m a hard worker, no doubt. I’m not obsessed with work. But I took every anatomy job handed to me for one big reason: I knew anatomy dissection instruction was a fading pulse. And … Read more
Dooley Noted: 9/27/2016 On this day three years ago, my father was celebrating his 72nd birthday. He was going through chemotherapeutic and radiation treatments, making him sicker than he’s ever felt in his life. We watched as he lost his gorgeous head of hair. We watched as he lost his joy for life, clouded by the medication attempting to save his life. Since he had a very aggressive form of … Read more
Dooley Noted: 9/23/2016 I have the honor of being a movement specialist. Something I do first visit, and every subsequent visit, is assess gait. I am fascinated by the ghosts of burden we carry as we move through space. The handbag a lady holds up on her right shoulder? It’s still there in her gait when she puts the bag down. The sprained ankle from junior high basketball? It’s still … Read more
1. Do consider all options to help with your ailments. 2. Don’t assume medications are without consequence. I don’t get cable. So I miss out on those fun lawyers, advertising to help those hurt by medications. The one I saw this morning was for those indigestion sufferers who experienced kidney damage after taking proton pump inhibitors, like Nexium and Prilosec. Your doctor took biochem. You can’t mess with the proton pumps of the stomach without … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/27/2016 We have all experienced varying degrees and qualities of pain. As a healthcare practitioner, nearly everyone sees me for visits to help them understand pain. While people want to get out of pain, it may defeat the purpose of why it presents itself. I’ll give you a not-so-hypothetical example. A patient presents to me with crippling knee pain when she descends the stairs. She gets a … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/24/2016 Lately, I’ve experienced an influx of middle-aged, active people with chronic pain issues. When they come to see me, they are very disconcerted that movements don’t come so easily to them anymore. One particular patient showed me that it was difficult for him to get off of the floor, due to his low back pain. I watched him slowly go from supine to side-lying, then to oblique sitting. … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/22/2016 I was teaching at an NKT seminar this weekend, when it hit me like a Mack truck. The vice grip on my skull was unrelenting. The nausea debilitated me so that I couldn’t eat or drink. I knew the feeling all too well, although it has only happened twice in the last year. It was a migraine. I have spent the bulk of my career studying migraine, … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/12/2016 When your heart has been shredded, you find yourself on the floor trying to piece it back together. The frustrations run deep. You filter through each shard, trying to make sense of each piece. None of the segments seem to match. Tears blind you as you struggle. If you’re there, I was in your shoes one year ago. I was responsible for my heart, and … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/5/2016 Once a road is built, it’s difficult not to go down it. It’s blazed with bright lights and smooth, silky pavement. You start taking it every chance you get. You start to really get to know this road. You know how it feels. This is how you create developed pathways in your brain, too. You pave them and light them because, at one time, they … Read more
Dooley Noted: 8/2/2016 Since January 1, 2011, I have written Dooley Noted every day. I’ve never run out of topics, and I never will. But as I make post #2041, I’m deciding to write whenever I desire to do so. So, this is my last consecutive post. In an attempt to provide a richer, more nourishing personal life, I’m deciding to write as I feel the need. And the … Read more