February Eblast

This month’ contents:

1.      A Harvard Death

2.      Special Offer for Cutera’s 3D Treatment

3.      Update on Faith in Practice Missionary Trip to Guatemala

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A Harvard Death

Dr. Birken’s collection of short stories, A Harvard Death, is available online at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Blue Dolphin Publishing.  Book signings have been scheduled at various Borders stores and will be scheduled at Barnes and Noble beginning in the spring.  Also, Dr. Birken will be happy to sign any book bought by his patients.

A Harvard Death and Other Stories Randy A. Birken ISBN: 978-1-57733-173-5, 132 pp., 6x9, hardcover, $22.95

The ten stories in this collection, written by a medical doctor, all focus on the medical profession, where the main character is either a medical student, hospital house officer, or doctor. These stories reflect the author's many medical experiences, giving a richness and diversity to the plots, and each ending with a little twist.

Each story invites the reader to another medical setting as another mini-drama unfolds, or another ethical issue unwinds, or someone faces an ultimate decision. Blending pathos and humor with a medical background - much like television episodes of medical drama - Dr. Birken offers these intriguing vignettes with a comment from Bernard Malamud, "life is tragedy full of joy." Such are these stories.

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Steeped in the rich tradition of literature and medicine, Dr. Birken writes stories that unflinchingly explore the feelings that accompany the process of becoming a physician: fear and self-doubt, disillusionment and anger, and finally, compassion and confidence. For anyone who wants to understand how doctors really experience their training as it unfolds in the classroom and then in clinical settings, A Harvard Death is a must-read.
 Cheryl A. Koski, Ph.D.  Professor of Writing about Health and Medicine
University of South Florida St. Petersburg   

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"A Harvard Death is compelling in its portrayal of how medical school changes the lives of men and women who choose this honorable profession despite the vagaries of managed care today. His stories, albeit composites of fictional characters, ring true today given medical ethics, dying with dignity, and medical advances that continue to chip away at the doctor-patient relationship. I was especially taken with his first chapter and portrayal of Mr. D'Amato, who chose to die on his own terms. This resonated inside my gut as I watched my mother make the same decision last year in a Houston hospital, and the compassion of her doctors and nurses after five years of end-stage emphysema. Kudos to Dr. Birken for his compassion and psychological insights which are rare among physicians and surgeons today." Dr. Keith Barton, psychologist and author

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"In his diverse collection of stories about the experiences of medical students, Dr. Randy Birken writes with skill and compassion. The more the young doctors discover the humanity of their patients, the more readers appreciate the humanity of those who choose to practice the art of healing." Rosemary Poole-Carter, playwright & novelist (www.poole-carter.info)

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Cutera’s Non-Surgical Face Lift!

Recently, Dr. Birken published a review of all the skin tightening optical treatments available on the market in the February issue of Advance for Health Aging.

            “By addressing the three problems of aging – skin color, texture, and gravity – we can improve tone and tautness with a more homogenous color appearance to the face.  Because these modalities work synergistically but with different light properties, all three painless treatments can be done during one session, a significant patient benefit.”

                        Randy Birken, MD, Advance for Healthy Aging, Jan/Feb 2007

For our established patients, élan MedSpa is offering a $200 discount on a Cutera 3D treatment.  Please call or email Megan at 832-816-7366 or at megan@gynfo.com

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 Faith In Practice Medical Missionary Trip

Dr. Birken returned from Guatemala, where he and several other doctors and nurses provided medical care to over 2100 patients over four days in rural areas.  If interested, please read Dr. Birken’s vignette on the experience.

Cold and wet for a Houston January, it’s the six forty AM arrival at the international terminal that raises doubts.  Sure, we want to volunteer – help the indigent, people who struggle living with almost nothing except for the sustenance of family and faith.  But 6:40 AM for a week working in rural Guatemala?  A big difference between generosity and being sacrificial.

            We board the tardy plane and the uncertainty resurfaces.  Why am I doing this and who will I be with and how much can I do for patients in a medical environment void of lab or x-ray?  The art of medicine, listening to the patient, and the revered physical exam, once the magical touching of a healer, just doesn’t exist anymore.  Or does it?  Perhaps, somewhere within us, we seek to rediscover the nobility of a profession, when taking care of a patient meant taking care of a patient.

            The flight to Guatemala is routine as we crowd around an archaic baggage area, piling red and black trunks filled with medications and supplies, like a chest of diamonds.  A set back – not all our supplies made it on the plane.  Panic?  Anger?  No. No one gets too upset, for life’s vicissitudes are expected – and to the people who believe in and who devote their time and energy to Faith in Practice, it’s merely a slight detour on the road to magnanimity. What is really going on here – a group of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, translators and an administrative staff, experienced and resigned, unfazed by impediments - a different feeling, a group united by purpose, a band of brothers and sisters to help others.

            We walk out into the Guatemalan sun, pleasantly warm and welcoming.  But it’s the ride to Antigua, slowed by roadwork that permits time to become acquainted with our village group.  It’s an easy get-together and a growing camaraderie, a closeness formed by a mutual quest, a search for the grandeur of mankind, the great equalizer that makes us all one and the same.

            But it’s our visit to Casa de Fe, a refuge for patients and family members, and the Obras, the first hospital founded in Antigua that really ignites our charitable instincts and touches our compassion - a cleanliness, tranquility, and devotion, unique and irreproachable.  Yet, when the Padre speaks to us, hush tones clearly enunciating the purpose and accomplishments, especially a desire, genuine and untarnished, to help more people, an epiphany, the moment we realize that we are part of a bigger plan, a force that transcends primal human nature and brings it to a dimension that is spiritual and good.

            So, we sleep a little and begin our mission.  A flight on an almost windowless military plane, an exotic ride through the Caribbean into the Rio Dulce, followed by daily boat taxis with comical misadventures on rough waters producing near testicular crushing pain, as well as the  roller coaster drives on pockmarked dirt roads within an aged bus that would never pass a Texas state inspection.

            But it’s the people at the villagers - those surviving souls within extreme poverty - that are the real gifts.  Clean, gracious, and appreciative.  It is their care that brings us our rewards, a level of medical care that is pure and divine, satisfying and just.  We enjoy our company, sing, tell jokes, and mingle with our new family under one goal and one spirit.

Aristotle said that to know the good is to do the good.  That we have experienced, an unforgettable week of revelations and personal bonding, an exaltation of the human spirit, strong and resilient, loving and compassionate.  The 20^th century American writer, Bernard Malamud said that life is tragedy, full of joy.  In essence, that has been our week.  Faith in our fellow man, faith in our higher power, faith in ourselves, faith in practice – a full circle, a tapestry of life itself.