07.26.09
A Drastic Message
Lightening struck our home two days ago and I’ve been reeling ever since. While in the midst of preparing dinner as my sons showered and my husband changed clothes, it began to pour buckets of rain. The sky suddenly grew dark, thunder rolled and then we heard a massive explosion followed by a flash of light. I just knew our house was on fire. Wires hissed, I smelled smoke and then there was an eerie silence. We discovered that the useless 50-foot palm tree that occupies our lawn was struck by lightening as was the sprinkler system and phone lines. Sometimes the weather in Florida can be equally as bad as its politics.
When the smoke cleared (no pun intended), my beloved desktop computer was fried; our water heater demolished; garage opener– gone; landline phones silenced; alarm system deadened and an extinguished fluorescent light in the laundry room. The cable repairman stayed for four hours today yet we are STILL without phone and Internet service. Whew, is Murphy is having a field day!
When events of Biblical magnitude occur in my life, I immediately look for the lesson. What did I do wrong NOW, God, I pondered and the answer was self-neglect. I’ve been averaging three hours of sleep as I juggle a full-time stressful job, market a wonderful book, prepare for radio interviews, provide monthly consultations for an intense federal committee, take care of my active 7 and 8-year old sons and often neglected husband. I doze off in the middle of dinner and have had to pay a punitive $30.00 late fee for detaining the staff of my children’s daycare center as a result of taking a much needed and unexpected “nap.”
Lord, I have duly received the message to slow down. But did you have to be so dramatic?
07.23.09
Smart Pearls for Pregnant Mothers
I’ve loved writing for as long as I can remember thanks to my late Aunt Dot, who instilled this passion at an early age. She would proudly tell her friends that I had been reading the New York Times since the age of 8. While I don’t know how true that is, I do have an intimate relationship with the written word and know that it is mightier and stronger than man-made weapons.
For the past five years, I’ve tried to put words on paper that would empower pregnant women to take control of their pregnancies and thus my book, The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy Was Born. The landscape of healthcare as changed dramatically since I stepped out of residency training. Physicians no longer control the healthcare profession.
Right now, we’re in the midst of a pitched battle to reclaim our profession but in the meantime, four million babies will be born each year in the U.S. Those babies and their moms must be protected. Please read my interview with Carol Borthwick of the Qean Group below to find out how.
http://www.qeangroup.com/blog/2009/07/te-questions-linda-burke-galloway/
07.17.09
In Praise of Dr. Regina Benjamin
My late aunt once said: Give me my flowers while I can still smell them. Dr. Regina Benjamin, your bouquet has arrived.
Benjamin is President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General, and no one deserves that title more. Although we have never met, we are colleagues by default. We are members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and are alumni of the National Health Service Corp. Benjamin worked at the Bayou La Batre clinic in Alabama; I practiced at the Bayou Comprehensive clinic in Louisiana. Everyone was aware that Benjamin worked in a humble trailer taking care of Southeast Asian immigrants and used personal funds to build and rebuild her clinic after it was devastated by two hurricanes and a fire.
Both Benjamin and I chose career paths less traveled. No weekends off. No lucrative salaries. Professional isolation and managing complex patients with very little support. My public health career continued in Florida, Benjamin remained in Alabama.
During Hurricane Katrina, Benjamin made house calls in a pickup truck to patients who were shut in; maxed out her credit cards and mortgaged her home so that she could rebuild her clinic that was totally destroyed. However, when your light shines brightly — people can’t help but notice.
Benjamin became an associate dean of a medical school department, the president of her state medical society and the recipient of the 2008 MacArthur Foundation genius award of $500,000. Any blessings and accolades that she has received are certainly well deserved.
The dedication and commitment of Dr. Regina Benjamin should be shared by all. The well-being of her patients always took precedence over money. Why on earth can’t our healthcare system do the same?
07.11.09
In Search of the Golden Rule
The People Magazine article, A Deadly Affair, (Bill Hewitt and Amy Green) describes a tragedy that should have never happened: The murder of Steve McNair by a girlfriend who shot him four times in the head and then committed suicide. Steve was also a married man. What the heck is going on?
I didn’t know McNair personally, but had the privilege of traveling to Mississippi to watch his last football game at Alcorn State University before he was drafted to the pros. My husband and I, along with a busload of his Louisiana relatives made the pilgrimage to Mississippi at an obscene hour of the morning. But it was well worth it. We wanted to witness a professional athlete in the making and on that day, he played magnificently.
Football is the ticket to the American dream for every African American male living in the Deep South and McNair’s future was secured. He became one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks, bought his mother an upscale home, married his college sweetheart (a practicing RN), had four sons, organized charity benefits for Katrina victims and led the underdog Titans to their first Super Bowl game. But temptation was McNair’s Achilles heel and he didn’t know how to deflect.
Sahel Kazemi was a 20-year-old waitress who worked at the sports bar that McNair’s family often frequented. She was well aware that McNair was married.
It’s an unwritten rule that married men might stray but rarely leave their wives. Obviously no one told Kazemi. When my sons become older, I will tell them about the tragedy of Steve McNair as a lesson in life. I will also share one important rule that might have prevented this horrific debacle: Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.
Why can’t humans follow those simple instructions?
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07.04.09
A Public Service Announcement
And so my rant continues. As more details emerge regarding Michael Jackson’s untimely and unnecessary demise, (see The Huffington Post, Propofol: Dangerous Anesthesia Drug Found in Jackson’s Home) the hotter I get under the collar. Allegedly an anesthesiologist was “bringing him down every night” during the History Tour back in 1997 with a potent anesthetic because Jackson had a problem falling asleep. Another ethically-challenged physician has struck again.
Diprivan is an anesthetic used to put people in a state of unconsciousness, during surgery ONLY. It is never, never, never used outside of a hospital setting or operating room and requires intense monitoring of patients. Attention all of you wanna-be celebrities out there, please do not get any bright ideas. And if you find a rogue physician who will administer Diprivan to you, then get your affairs in order.
It’s an open secret that very few physicians or nurses will select general anesthesia if confronted with having a surgical procedure. Most of us will choose an epidural or regional anesthesia instead. Anyone who is remotely connected to medicine knows that the most common and deadly complications of a surgical procedure is not the surgery itself, but general anesthesia. Medical school 101. I’ve had three surgical procedures in my life and only once did I require general anesthesia. I argued with the ophthalmologist up until the day before my procedure and then did a background check on the anesthesiologist prior to him putting me to sleep that would have made the FBI proud.
So, here’s the public service announcement: medication in the wrong hands is deadly. When Michael Jackson was put to sleep, he left us to wake up confronting a nightmare.
