on being a victim

The BBC reports today that Assembly Members in Wales are concerned about the lack of progress made in dealing with violence and aggression towards health care workers. I’m concerned too. In fact I despair. Over 50000 health care workers are victims off assault every year, 3500 of them are GPs, nurses and other staff in [...]

Pandora’s Box

I saw Mrs P today. She is her late thirties, and I first met her four years ago not long after joining the surgery when she came for a blood pressure check. She has hypertension and type 2 diabetes, but had lost six stones on WeightWatchers and she had been able to stop all of [...]

niceladytwitterer

I’m now on Twitter @niceladydoctor

The Pill, periods and the Catholic church

Medical legend has it that when scientists were developing the first contraceptive pill, they developed it so that women taking the pill would have the reassurance of a monthly bleed. No matter that the bleed had no other purpose (it doesn’t even tell you you’re not pregnant as if you happen to fall pregnant on [...]

Temporary Hiatus

The delightful Jobbing Doctor has nudged me back into life after a few months’ break. Like all busy working mums who take too much on, the blogging has taken a back seat while I managed children’s birthdays, Christmas, and a very busy time at work. But it’s spring now and I have no further excuses. [...]

Lest We Forget

It’s Remembrance Sunday this weekend, and I had a rather apposite consultation this week, with Mr C. He is an elderly gentleman, nearly 90, a retired serviceman. He was an officer in the Royal Navy during the second world war. On his discharge he struggled to work, as he was suffering from PTSD and impaired [...]

on using my brain

The Nice Lady Doctor is not feeling very nice today. I am a little bit cross about a fellow medical blogger who reminded me that some colleagues think we GPs practise “dumbed down medicine”. I would challenge any of my readers who think that the work of a GP lacks intellectual stimulation to consider the [...]

could you give me something, doctor?

It had to happen eventually. Mrs M, whom I wrote about in my very first post, isn’t doing too well. When I visited today, she had taken to bed. I had been called out as she thought she might have a chest infection, and I couldn’t rule it out. She looked dehydrated, and she was [...]

Should I see a chiropracter, doctor?

I was pleased to come across A Country Doctor writing about the interface (or lack thereof) between traditional-othodox-allopathic medicine, and complementary medicine:
When patients ask me if they should see a chiropractor, I usually answer their question this way:
“You wouldn’t ask your rabbi how often you should go to confession, would you? Chiropractic and allopathic medicine [...]

A Room Of One’s Own

I’ve seen a few patients recently who have made me thinkabout the welfare state.
The first is a young woman in her mid-thirties, Amy, who is depressed. She is a self employed mobile beauty therapist who works in her clients’ homes. She is also one of the sofa surfers that the Northern Doctor blogged about last [...]