Oh, how I long to read story submissions. Whenever one lands in my inbox, I inwardly squeal with delight.

Unfortunately, procrastination pretty much takes over from there and so they sit in my inbox, read only by me. I am so sorry to have held your submissions hostage from codeblog. Let me try to rectify that immediately.

From Angie:

On August 5, 2004, my brother was overcome by his bi-polar disorder and subsequent drug addiction. He chose to end his life by overdosing on Tylenol PM. He was a wonderful and caring person, but was never able to overcome his demons. My family loved him terribly and will never stop loving him or forget him. I am writing this to try to encourage others to allow compassion in their hearts when dealing with those who suffer from these family diseases.

Make no mistake, these are family diseases and can destroy families if allowed. When you have a family member dealing with mental illness and they try to self-medicate to overcome the mental illness you can tend to harden your heart. Please don’t harden your heart, open your heart with compassion and try to understand that this is an illness. Most of us feel compassion to those who suffer from cancer because we feel it is not that persons fault. Well I want you to understand that mental illness is not a persons fault either. If there is one thing that has come out of this tragedy, it is my family’s final understanding and compassion to just how badly my brother suffered. As I have often said no one would choose to live their life this way and I truly believe that he hated his illness and his resulting behavior more than anyone realized. He died at the age of 39 and had struggled since he was 16. He suffered for 23 years and it saddens me to say most of these 23 years were in loneliness.

Very well written advice from one who has obviously been there.

From Coral, Student Nurse in Singapore:

Story: Understaffed on a public holiday in Singapore (or Asian country, etc)

Yesterday was Hari Raya Eve. (Hari Raya: Malay festival of lights) The ward was grossly understaffed. Making up for my medical leave a week ago, I had to return to work on a Saturday. Everyone was very busy.

I was persuaded to station myself at male cubicle P3, full of dementia patients either climbing out of bed, tearing out their pants or, spitting on the floor or at nurses. Relatives stared at this clumsy nurse pushing an overladen trolley filled with blood-stained pyjamas, dirty flannels and adult diapers. Changing the patients in the last cubicle, I had to stop many times to catch my breath. Speaking or shouting in the patient’s ears in a variety of languages and dialects, I turned patients or changed diapers alone with great frustration. Even maids took day off today.

A while later, I was taking parameters. The second last patient was elderly and frail, with sallow skin like paper. As I wrapped his bony arm with the blood pressure taking cuff, he looked at me with a mixture of pain in gratitude. Hollowly he said, “It’s no use, why continue? I’m already so old, don’t make so much effort” I said to him almost with tears , “Uncle, don’t ever say that. Don’t ever say it’s too much effort..” Somehow, I got through the day…

Holidays are notoriously short-staffed. There is almost always less resource and support staff. However, after reading this, I don’t think I shall take my nice comfy hospital for granted again.

And from Christopher, who seems genuinely interested in infusion technology:

Just wanted to say I’ve read through a few archives and this place seems like a great forum for honest, insightful real-world medical diatribe…good work!

[Ed: Thanks!]

I haven’t found anywhere else to talk about my experience in the realm of device manufacturing. Specifically, infusion technologies. A fascinating realm, I must admit, but one that somehow provides more questions than answers.

A practitioner, I’m most definitely not, but I am educated enough to know the difference between safety and reality. I’m wondering if any of you out there have had any experiences with the sorts of pumps I’m working with. I really am interested in hearing about any and all of your nightmares, success stories, questions, concerns…

You can leave your comments for Christopher here, as I’m not sure that he wants me to broadcast his email address. Let’s see… infusion pumps… Huh. A lot of current pumps actually work quite well. They obviously have to have free-flow protection of some sort. Calculations are nice – enter the patient’s weight and concentration of drug, and there you go! Good for emergencies. I think the thing that is most lacking in infusion pumps right now is the weight. They’re just way too heavy. Anyone else?

There are more story submissions sitting in my inbox, but I shall dole them out in a few days. Patience!