As we approach the year-end, Team Psychonephrology would like to thank you all for your continuous support and encouragement throughout our journey together. We would like to recap some of the topics that received the widest viewership. At the beginning of this year, we started a new blog series, “in conversation series”, where the patients [...]
In July of 2013, NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon began tweeting from the ICU of a Chicago hospital. For the next week, as he watched his mother’s condition worsen until her eventual passing, he shared everything from interactions with ICU nurses to his mother’s wisecracks and life lessons with his thousands of Twitter followers. [...]
Is your decision well informed? Living kidney donations save many lives every year. It can be best described as the donation of a kidney from a healthy person, made of his or her own free will. Donating an organ gives you a sense of accomplishment, as you were able to save another person’s life. You [...]
Society’s rules and expectations of behavior by family caregivers can seem quite onerous. A caregiver is anticipated to be a selfless individual who keeps the needs of the patient above everyone else’s, including his or her own needs. He/she looks after physical, medical, emotional, psychological, financial and legal needs. He is thought to be an [...]
We all have, probably more than once, visited hospitals and diagnostic centers, and I am sure, most of us experienced some level of anxiety. The most anxious moments can be while waiting for test results. This anxiety of the dreaded unknown is often significantly modified by how these results were communicated to us, better or [...]
Book review by Mona Rassi “When Breath Becomes Air” is a book written by a 36 years old neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Before going to medical school, Paul Kalanithi studied English literature. He loved reading and writing, and he took the opportunity to write a book that will influence the lives [...]
Until Further Notice, I Am Alive by Tom Lubbock A few weeks ago, Sifted Sand published a review of The Iceberg by Marion Coutts, a book detailing her husband’s terminal illness and how their lives changed after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This week, we review the second half of the story, written [...]
Can terminal illness mar your passion for life? No one plans his day as if he will die tomorrow. But what if you are aware that you don’t have much time left? Will your remaining life change forever? Will you retain your zeal for life? When you are given only a year or two to [...]
Though death is an ultimate reality of life, no amount of preparation can help us overcome the void that occurs with the death of our loved ones. The eventual shape that mourning takes is colored by the emotional connection we sustained with that person. […]
The Iceberg- Marion Coutts This book is a compelling and moving day-to-day account of the physical and emotional impact of a close family member becoming terminally ill. The writer has beautifully constructed a moving narrative, baring all her emotions and thoughts over a three-year journey as her husband dies with incurable cancer. […]
Do you ever consider the unthinkable? What thoughts and emotions would cross your mind if you know that your life partner was terminally ill? How would you imagine the minutes and the hours of the day passing? […]
Physician-Assisted Death in the Renal Unit? A special four-part series on the various struggles physicians face with the legalization of Physician-Assisted Death. PART FOUR In Conversation with Drs Rauf Sirman, Sonu Gaind and James Downar The series ends with a discussion between presenters Drs Rauf Sirman, Sonu Gaind, and James Downar and the audience comprised of community/academic [...]
Physician-Assisted Death in the Renal Unit? A special four-part series on the various struggles physicians face with the legalization of Physician-Assisted Death. PART TWO Do Not Harm – Help Me Die: Navigating Mental Health Issues in the Turbulent Waters of Intolerable Suffering and (Ir)remediability Presented by Dr. Sonu Gaind Dr. Sonu Gaind opens up his lecture by [...]
Book Review Coming Soon | Until Further Notice, I am Alive by Tom Lubbock A famous art critic and illustrator, Tom Lubbock wrote his memoir on living life after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. This upcoming feature will be preceded by our review of The Iceberg, an award-winning memoir written from the perspective of his wife, Marion Coutts, an internationally [...]
