Very little to say. Marina has been hoping and hoping that the next cortisone-into-nerve injections would be scheduled, but to date, no word, which is disappointing.
As it happens, during my annual physical checkup yesterday,* there was more talk about Marina (who was Dr. Cohn's patient for many years) than about me. (She had to leave him, to join the medical plan that included Dr. Hu.) Dr. Cohn** points out that nerve tissue is the slowest-healing tissue in the body, and if damaged, can take 12 to 18 months to heal. He says that if Marina were still his patient, he would have prescribed Oxycontin instead of Norco, because its pain-killing effect rises quickly to a certain level, and stays there until the next dose, instead of rising and falling with time.
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* utterly normal in all measurable ways
** under a pen name, he is the author of wonderfully funny books about the practice of medicine, including "Kill As Few Patients as Possible: essays on becoming the world's best doctor," and his scathing indictment of HMOs, "Dr. Generic Will See You Now." One of his many adages: "Choosing an internist who isn't Jewish is like buying barbecue from a place run by Caucasians: it might work out well, but why take a chance."
Posted by John Bear
at 11:09 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 3 May 2005 11:11 PM PDT
