How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman

I finished How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. Good read.

Since our family has had much more face time, email time, phone time, and hospital time with doctors in the past year than I ever could have hoped for, I've developed a new appreciation for good doctors and nurses and they work they do.

My greatest criticism in our medical voyage has been that doctors only seemed to be treating the numbers of my daughter's tests. I worried they weren't treating my daughter---just treating to the numbers. This is a big theme of the book: what criteria doctors use to make decisions.

The book isn't meant to be an expose of doctors, just an examination of doctors doing what they can. The message of the book is: doctors are doing the best they can. Patients are doing the best they can. Modern medicine is doing well, but can do better. We can all do better.

A good book if you are interested in the subject.

And . . . I must make one more comment before I venture off. Groopman was ruthless in his examination of drug salesman. I relished his comments, having met many a tight-bodiced, cleavage-showing, perfumed drug saleslady, as well as many slick, shiny-shoed, sweet-talking drug salesman man during my time working in a doctor's office. I'm sure there are some drug salespeople who have integrity and make an honest living and are good at what they do. I just think the whole drug manufacturing business is crooked. Like health insurance companies, it makes money on people who are vulnerable because of illness or circumstance. Groopman and me: we have little tolerance for this.

It was enough to read the book and find a kindred spirit in Groopman, who sliced and diced the drug reps and their industry. But that was just a sliver of the book. The rest of it was worth reading as well.

Keep them Coming!

I love all the movie recs in the comments. Keep them coming! Our Netflix queue needed a facelift.

Katy, either comment or email me and tell me what you teach again. I've been doing some more YA historical lit (I'll have to blog about it) and I'd love a reminder what topics you do. Would be fun to help you have lots of historical fiction suggestions at your fingertips.

Documentaries Take Two

Thanks for the comments! Fun suggestions! Katy, I would love to have your list of historical documentaries.

We also watched Babies, Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and Wordplay. We liked all of those and thought they were worth the time.

Stacey, I would be so, so interested in your charter school experience. There aren't charter schools where we live for elementary, but there is a math and science charter school for junior high that's opening. If there were a waiting list, even so early in the game, we'd be on it.

Documentaries we watched. Some we liked.

Sometimes we get on documentary kicks. Sometimes we find some good stuff. Sometimes we just send the movie back.

Here's a sampling of some of what we've been through that we thought were really good.

1. Waiting for Superman, about the public education system in the US. Fabulous. Really truly well done.

2. Mad Hot Ballroom, about the ballroom dance program for elementary students in New York? I think New York. Hilarious. A riot. I loved it.

3. Spellbound, about the National Spelling Bee. Good stuff.

4. Nursery University about preschool in New York. We liked it.

Other things we watched and thought were interesting:

1. The food movies. Like Supersize me, the reason that I cannot frequent McDonalds---seeing the movie obliterated my McD business forever. We also did Food Inc. (interesting).

2. The oil movies. King Corn and Fuel for example. Good.

3. The homebirth movies. Like Being Born in America. Interesting---ironic that almost every movie makes hospitals out to be BAD and then there's an emergency and that's where the BAD hospital homebirthers end up going. Eric and I always find that ironic.

I'm sure we'll find more topics. We like documentaries. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Temple Grandin. It's a movie.

We saw the best movie! Go find a copy of Temple Grandin. It's a great story about Temple's life. Temple was born in the 1960's. She has autism. (Nice choppy sentences, there, Deborah.)

Saying, "It's about this woman with autism" is about all I can come up with because that really is the plot. But the story is intriguing and the movie is SO well done. Claire Danes plays Temple and it's been ages since I've seen such good acting.

After you watch the movie, watch "The Making of Temple Grandin" in the additional features. You'll get the meet the real Temple.

I have been thinking about this movie ever since we saw it. Because it's also about teachers and the powerful role of positive mentors. It's also about finding similarities where it would be easy to only see differences. And it's about becoming more human.

Just find a copy. Words fail me.

But watch it before you let your kids see it. I would let young adolescents watch it, but not little kids.

Netflix series we love

1. BBC productions of Dickens. Bleak House with Gillian Anderson is fabulous. We also liked Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorritt was great as well.

2. Lark Rise to Candleford. Starts slow, picks up.

3. Foyles War.

4. All the Poirots mysteries.

5. Monk.

6. The Elizabeth Gaskill ones. North and South. Wives and Daughters. And Cranford, which I forgot to add.

7. Victoria and Albert (two disks). We thought it was good.

8. Berkeley Square . . . We just can't seen to get enough of turn of the century British drama.

Anyone else have any series suggestions? I'll do documentaries and movies in other posts.

A Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

So it's actually a book review today!

I piecemeal read A Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus. I read half, then skipped to the end, read the end, then skipped back and piecemeal read the rest. Never did get around to putting in a bookmark, that's why. Never thought about a bookmark until I was settled, feeding the baby, thinking, "Should've found a bookmark."

The book is great. Along the delightful lines of These is My Words and with enough romance for even Guernsey fans. The plot is that women (of their own accord) are given to the Cheyenne nation in the 1800s to be brides of the Cheyenne men. Jim Fergus did a lot of fantastic research into the Cheyenne culture---I know because that's where I went after I read the book.

And it. Is. Funny. Of course, I'm drawn to any book where the women are intelligent, sassy, plain-spoken gals who have brains and wit.

It would be a great book club book. Truly fun to both read and discuss.

It is about marriage. So there are consummation scenes. Blip. Blip. Move on with the plot. But if those will offend you, skip them when you see them coming.

I think I'm going to buy this one. I'd enjoy reading it again and picking up the pieces that I missed the first time.

Read it before you give it a friend or daughter to read, then you can make the call.

OK, Caveat to my last post

So I had some response about my air duct post and I wanted to clarify:

Having the ducts cleaned out was WTM to me because we had stuff and smells that we needed to get out. The EPA says that it's debatable whether most people, who don't have problems and don't suffer from allergies, really do need to have the ducts cleaned out at all.

The other thing is that it stirs up the yuck in the ducts. Can't be good for breathing. But I was stuck. I didn't want to leave a stranger in my house and Eric was at work. So for part of the time, the kids were playing outside where they didn't have to breathe the stuff. Things you learn.

So there you go. More info.

Handbook to Life. Air duct Cleaning.

Sometimes I feel like I need a handbook to life. I mean the practical aspects of life. (I just had flashforward of someone giving in a talk at church, "I read this woman's blog saying she needs a handbook to life and I thought---the scriptures! That's what you need!" Yes, I know. And I do need them.)

I was speaking about the more mundane aspects of life. Like cleaning.

I'm good at doing what needs to be done, once I know what needs to be done. For instance . . . because of some questionable (and we think illegal) smoking habits of our neighbors, I've been annoyed (alarmed, etc.) by the fact that some second-hand smoke was wafting into our house. You know, the place where my children breathe. So the neighbors finally moved away and I decided we needed to have the air ducts in our house cleaned out. COIT came with their mighty vacuums.

I learned all sorts of things when I did this, some of which I wish I didn't know concerning just what possible yuck can be hiding in a furnace or air conditioning unit. The yuck we found is now gone. In it's place is left the residual Mom Guilt that I didn't know to get the yuck out sooner.

So, for the three people that actually read this blog (thank you, you are so devoted), here are my two cents about what I learned.

1. When you run our air conditioner or furnace, the air goes through the AC or furnace. If the AC/furnace is dirty inside, the air will be dirty when it comes out. I knew that before, but now I understand why.

2. Before we move into a new place in the future, one of the first questions I will ask will be "Has a smoker of legal or illegal anything ever lived here?" If the answer is "yes", we will walk away and find someplace else to live.

3. Before we move into a new place I will ask when the last time the air ducts were cleaned out. If I'm met with a blank look, I will ask if anything has ever happened to make this necessary. I'm not sure that ducts always need to be cleaned out (it's debatable by the EPA), but I want to make sure there's no yuck there.

4. Air conditioner filters should be changed every three months. Good thing Eric knew this one because he's been changing them---I'm so lucky he's so clever.

5. If there's a stinky smell coming from the furnace or air conditioner, this isn't just house smell. It's yuck. Get it out.

6. Getting air ducts cleaned out was WTM to me because it's good to have all that stuff out.

There. Now you know more than I knew up until yesterday. Now you know.

And knowing is . . . well . . . you know. (Thank you, GI Joe.)

WTM: Worth The Money

My sister Anjanette and I love the part in Sleepless where the girl writes the note and uses "MFEO": Made For Each Other. So, in honor, here are some things that I think are WTM in my mom life: Worth the money.

Frog potty. How we love frog potty! Frog potty is funny, so my potty training son likes to use it. Frog potty is two pieces---lift that blue bowl out and rinse rinse. Not like the last potty we had that had a ring and this other piece and this other piece and this other piece and it was always filthy because it was hard to clean. Enter frog potty. TADA!

Shoes my children can get on by themselves. I spent too much of Son One's life trying to get his shoes on him. But I have learned. Only buy shoes they can put on themselves.
Rain boots. This is the first year I bought rain boots---heretofore I just let the kids splash around in their shoes. No, no, no. There is a better way. Boots, oh yeah.
A bagel slicer. This would fall under "useless gadget" for many. But since I have a bagel slicer, I don't cut open my hand trying to cut up bagels in the few times a year that we actually have bagels. Saves me an Emergency Room bill. Sits up flat next to the cupboard wall. It's works like a bagel guillotine, but gives you two perfectly sliced halves. I've heard of a pineapple slicer, anyone tried that? Anyone have one?

The other thing that's worth the money is a good babysitter. We pay ours really well and hope that she'll come back. But a good babysitter isn't WTM; a good babysitter is WWWTHM---way, way worth the money.

Conference

Didn't you just love Conference? And was my husband the only one who grinned at his wife (me) when Elder Scott told the story about how his wife asked him to please go play with the children? Someday, another post will be about conversations I think we're all having with our spouses and kids. Different houses. Different times. Different people. Different places. Same conversations.

And President Uchdorft's reference to the fact he didn't make an aviation analogy. Hilarious!

It wasn't just the amusing that touched me, although it did feel good to laugh well at clever things.

I was really touched by how many people shared experiences of brave/amazing/inspiring children who have endured medical mania and touched the lives of those who care for them. I loved the story about the patient who asks, "Will I be different after this treatment?" and the reply is, "Yes, you will. You will be stronger. You will be awesome!"---I'll find the real quote for you when text is available this week.

Like my sister Liz, I was reminded to behold my little ones. To treasure these moments I have with my children. To soak it up. To make my home a place where they know they are loved and wanted. To help happiness to permeate into their souls. To let their souls permeate their light out to me. To help them feel the love that God has for them.

Conference was indeed a feast for me.