Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings

I saw Dr. B today for the last time: He says I'm fine, and don't need to take antibiotics anymore. In fact, the ones I've been t...

Today is a solemn anniversary for the country, but it's also an anniversary for me -- one that brings a mixture of emotions. A year ago ...

I learned a new word today: nocardia . It may have caused my brain abscess -- which according to last week's MRI has pretty much gone ex...

I saw Dr. B. today, and he's pleased with my progress. Wants another month of IV treatment though, which will bring me up to six months ...

There is a pain—so utter— It swallows substance up— Then covers the Abyss with Trance— So Memory can step Around—across—upon it— As one with...

I'm not much of an environmentalist, I'm afraid. Oh, I insist on fluorescent bulbs, but I sometimes forget and throw paper or bottle...

I saw Dr. B this morning, and the lesion has shrunk by half! Even he was surprised at the improvement. He wants me to continue the IV therap...

I got my first bill from my medical adventure the other day: $1,083.74 for office visits and lab tests at the clinic I went to on the day I ...

Household hint for today: If you've got a cast or some sort of surgical dressing that needs to be waterproofed whenever you bathe, wrap ...

I went to see an ophthalmologist, Dr. L., today. I aced the eye chart, even with my wonky left eye, but there's still a problem with my ...

Why don't hospitals and clinics have dentists on staff? Why is dentistry different from other specialties that deal with the human body?...

I mentioned earlier that I had been having trouble getting my shirts on right-side-front and my shoes on the correct feet. I don't anymo...

Home! Of course, I hadn't been here long before the garbage disposal jammed and the sink backed up. I took it on myself, in a bit of hub...

Hospitals and nursing facilities are grown-up places, where things like prudishness and modesty have to be left behind. I overheard two nurs...

Nicholas Kristof has a scary-informative column about tuberculosis today. And I may have to modify my previous assertion that I don't ha...

The groundhog saw the shadows and liked what he saw, so my winter in the nursing facility is nearing its end. As soon as the two bureaucraci...

Tomorrow is my version of Groundhog Day. Not that it's going to repeat over and over, although that pretty much describes my current ins...

If this were an episode of "House,"the cranky, pill-popping doctor would long ago have diagnosed my brain abscess as caused by an ...

A nurse I hadn't seen before was hanging my IV bag the other day when I noticed her name tag. "Is your name Arsenic?" "Ar...

I can't imagine driving a car. That fierce and constant calculus of velocity, distance, and direction, which the ordinary brain does mor...