Redemption

The day misspent, the love misplaced, has inside it the seed of redemption. Nothing is exempt from resurrection. – Kay Ryan, poet   To be human is to embrace memory, or to grasp recollection the way a child squeezes a rubber ball in his tiny, clenched fist. Memory. It’s cornerstone, isn’t it? Bedrock, owned. Coveted. …

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Loss of Grief: A Brief History of the DSM 5

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a reference book that contains standard criteria for the classification and diagnosis of mental disorders. It is considered an authoritative source of information for psychiatrists,psychologists, policy makers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies,and other health care professionals. Published by the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM evolved out of systems …

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Remembering Tamoxifen

By Margot Heffernan, MLS Last week, I picked up a copy of the local paper. I took a cursory look at it, turning page after page, finding the usual, less than uplifting forecasts about the financial cliff, along side articles about chaos in Egypt, natural disasters, and accidental death. As I turned it over, letting the front page flutter out …

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Single Payer Health Systems and the Affordable Care Act

by Margot Heffernan, MLS  President Obama’s re-election means that The Affordable Care Act will come to fruition.  Many questions remain, however, about just how his signature health care legislation will take shape in the coming months and years. So far, twenty states have opted out of creating their own health care exchanges, leaving this onerous task to the federal …

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Delayed Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer and Iron Deficiency Anemia

By Margot Heffernan, MLS Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of non skin cancer that is diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 143,460 new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in 2012. Although the death rate for this cancer has been steadily …

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