Category: Uncategorized

 

In medicine we value efficiency, organisation & prioritisation skills(even if some patients and managers think that there is no evidence 
of this!)
.
Some years ago I worked in Chicago and we had a patient list which 
was organised into three tiers:

 1. Inpatients directly under our care
 2. Inpatients under someone else care
 3. Patients who had left hospital and we needed to follow up on
 blood work or tests.

Each day we worked the list in that order.

We only deviated from this order to see new emergencies.

Once the new emergency patient was sorted out (and added to the list of course) we continued with the order of the patients as per the 
list.

The day ended when we got to the bottom of the list.

Next day we started over with the list again.

When we went on vacation we handed the list over to someone else.

One day a new patient with severe pneumonia was added to the list.

He had advanced HIV and a large spleen which both put him at high 
risk of infections.

We spent hours stabilising him.

He almost died.

Two weeks later he had recovered and asked to be discharged.

I was hoping to keep him in for two days to observe him off 
antibiotics.

However he told me that his daughter was graduating from university 
and she was the fist member of his family to get a degree.

It emerged that she had gone to secretarial school but in his mind it was a full university degree.

Reluctantly I agreed to let him go early with the understanding that he should come back if he had a fever or shortness of breath.

The following morning the hospital switchboard woke me up and a lady with a slow southern drawl told me that my patient had just died in 
ER.

I was devastated & felt so guilty.

I rushed in (though it made no sense to rush in as he was already 
dead) and learned that he had been beaten to death.

His large spleen had ruptured during a street brawl.

Even though his death had nothing to do with his pneumonia I was 
still racked with guilt.

'What if I had kept him in hospital one more night?'

I went to the morning report and tried to focus as we went through 
'the list'.

At the end of report, one of the social workers exploded.

'For the last two weeks, I have listened to you guys talking about 
blood results and antibiotics for one of your patients. You all know that he died a few hours ago. Yet not one of you said anything 
because he is not on that stupid list you worship'.

'When will you doctors realise that medicine is not like a bento box'

Great question.

 

Today I did my first ‘official’ restaurant review, although of course I have been doing it ‘unofficially’ forever.

As the name suggests, Global Restaurant in Dundrum offers a wide range of dishes from across the world.

Question is – how healthy is it?

Here is ‘what the doctor saw’!

From the door,  you see the chocolate fountain, liquorice allsorts & candies and you could be forgiven for judging the restaurant as a health disaster.

However intgetrative health means being open-minded and inquiry driven which means you have to actually get past the door.

Today the 160 seat restaurant was full with a queue of about 30 people outside eagerly waiting to enter.

As an aside, the restaurant itself provided an interesting snapshot of Irish society.

There were numerous ‘false tanned communion mums’ self-consciously tottering on impossibly high heeled sandals.

A group of elderly ladies were flushed with alcohol and wore bright blue eye shadow which extended way beyond the legal limit of the eyelid!

On the plus side, there was not a single dressingown or pair of fluffy slippers to be seen!

On a more serious note, I would estimate that about one third of the patrons had the metabolic syndrome based on their physical appearance.

(Metabolic syndrome is considered to be a disease of lifestyle and a precursor of diabetes).

All plates were heaped with food and almost everyone had multiple plates of food.

From a wellness perspective, it is recommended to stop eating when 80% full.

I could not see anyone who might have even come close to stopping at 100% full.

I guess the potato famine is still hard wired in the Irish consciousness.

The restaurant has a huge buffet section with the usual popular Asian fusion dishes which did not interest me much.

To my delight, there was a large sushi section which would get top marks as part of an anti-inflammatory diet.

Visitors can choose from a selection of tofu, fish & fresh vegetables and have it stir fried to their own specifications. Pretty cool!

There was also a large salad and fresh fruit section which even included edamame which again makes the cut for super healthy.

The only herbal tea on offer was green tea & it would have been nice to have a selection of herbal teas from around the globe. Jasmine tea please!

I asked the kids whether they thought it was healthy or not and they summed up the restaurant perfectly by saying ‘It can be healthy or not healthy depending on what you select’.

What a great place for kids to learn about global cuisine & balancing healthy food with treats.

Despite the liquorice allsorts & the fact that this would not be my personal top choice for healthy eating in Dublin, I am giving this restaurant approval from an integrative health perspective.

Not just because you can choose healthy options, but because it meets the broader definition of ‘integrative health’.

Our health depends on much more than just what we eat.

In fact people who obsess over healthy eating (orthorexia) are not healthy.

Our wellness depends on our connection to others & our environment.

Even the mood of the chef counts towards our health according to Ayurvedic medicine.

Here the restaurant excels.

This restaurant was buzzing with social connections, was pleasantly decorated, the staff smile all the time and are endlessly helpful.

It is also very child friendly.

This all counts towards our health & well-being and yes my telomers felt longer when I was leaving.