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Mydriatic Madness
I got my eyes examined yesterday. They put mydriatic drops in like they usually do. It’s been a while since my last exam. I remember a long time ago the eye clinics used to give you a free pair of those flimsy paper sunglasses to cut down on the glare and blurriness. I see them…
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Don’t Look in the Dictionary for Mental Health and Mental Illness
I read an interesting article in Clinical Psychiatry News the other day, written by Dinah Miller, MD in the Shrink Rap News column, “Psychiatry and semantics.” Dr. Miller’s point was that it’s sometimes hard to define terms when discussing mental illness and stress. Can stress be defined as a mental illness? What the heck is…
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Thoughts on “The Next Chapter: Blazing New Trails (1998-2047)
The final presentation of the series night before last, Uncovering Hawkeye History in honor of the 175th anniversary of the University of Iowa was a fascinating review of the changes in architecture of the campus, how local and national politics influenced the university and vice versa, as well as the expansion of the role of…
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Who Let The Puns Out?
Well, we were out for a walk around Terry Trueblood Trail yesterday and a woman stopped us and excitedly asked, “Do you want to hear a joke about Covid?” Believe it or not, we didn’t know anybody made jokes about Covid—but we said “Yeah, go ahead.” And then she said it was about dogs, and…
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Managing Difficult Conversations Without a Neuralyzer
I think I was the last lone ranger Chief Resident in Psychiatry, meaning doing the job solo. After that, there were always at least two senior residents managing that. One of the things I did was to give lectures on various topics that were not strictly related to how to work on the wards and…

