Corpus - conversations about medicine and life

Dear Melanie (Part Two)

5 March 2018 2 Comments

Mike Riddell

Mike Riddell continues his conversation with Melanie from the Travel Insurance Claims Team. (Read Part One here.)

My next appointment for the Urology Department was 29 March. I was eager to get it under my belt, to get my results and be able to move on to getting the anticipated rebore. To my abject despair and shock, the doctor informed me that I had prostate cancer. Not only that, but it was Gleason Score 10, which is as high as the scale goes. The most aggressive and fastest-growing form of the cancer going. Ten minutes that changed my life.

Let me explain Melanie, since it might be relevant to my insurance claim. In the 64 years since my entry into the world, I had never in my life been in a hospital other than as a visitor. I was a fit, healthy, vital man with a wide range of interests. I didn’t do ‘sick’.

The Stone

5 March 2018 2 Comments

Sandra Arnold

In 2003, a year after our youngest daughter died, my husband Chris and I travelled from our home in New Zealand to Oman to live and work for a year. The challenges of living in this fascinating culture helped us learn to live with our grief in a way we couldn’t at home. Gradually I regained my ability to write. When we got back to New Zealand, I started recording our experiences from that time. This is one of the stories.

[Read more…] about The Stone

A picture paints a thousand words

26 February 2018 5 Comments

Rachel Sayers

Whinia Cooper — On a dusty Far North road, Dame Whina Cooper and her granddaughter Irenee set off on their hikoi to Parliament. (Michael Tubberty, NZ Herald Archive)

On 14 September 1975, fifty marchers left Te Hāpua in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand for the 1000 km walk to Parliament Buildings in Wellington. The hīkoi (march) was organised to raise awareness about the catastrophic loss of Māori land rights since colonisation. Led by 79-year-old Dame Whina Cooper, the hīkoi grew in strength as local people joined in along the way. About 5000 marchers arrived at Parliament on 13 October, where they presented a petition signed by 60,000 people to Prime Minister Bill Rowling.

I was nine years old when this photograph of Dame Whina Cooper and her granddaughter setting off on the hīkoi was taken. I don’t remember the event and yet the picture is meaningful to me. It hangs on my office wall, and often captures my attention as I glance up from the computer. I’ve always thought this is because it encapsulates what I feel is most important in life: children. The next generation. Our future. But why this picture and this particular quote? Why does it resonate with me so much? I decided to investigate further …

Putting things in order

26 February 2018 Leave a Comment

Kathryn Perks

Kathryn Perks explains what prompted her to write a guide to putting our affairs in order before we die.

During our lifetime we seldom consider preparing for our death or what will happen to our possessions when that time comes, or more importantly who might be given the unenviable task of trying to make sense of all that we leave behind. Often our siblings or children live in different cities or countries and we put off discussing with them what we know we should. It just never seems to be the right time and for some of us it can be a sensitive topic to raise, even with those closest to us. It is however usually our family members who are faced with this responsibility and are expected to step in.

Dear Melanie (Part One)

26 February 2018 3 Comments

Mike Riddell

Dear Mr Riddell,

We would like to thank you for sending your claim form and supporting documentation into our office for our consideration, and apologise for the delay in our response to you.

We would also like to advise you that we have assessed your claim today; however, in order for us to complete the assessment of your claim, we require the following information from you:

Written confirmation from travel agent/airline/hotel outlining the amount they reimbursed you for every cancellation cost;
The first consultation note from GP/doctor related to your sickness condition.

In the meantime if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards,

The Travel Claims Team

Poetry and medicine

19 February 2018 Leave a Comment

Emma Storr

The practice of medicine is very demanding emotionally, whatever specialty you are in. Writing, for me, is way of processing that emotion, and often also trying to distill a particular interaction with a particular individual while also saying something about the everyday human experience of illness, vulnerability and joy. It’s a way of thinking out loud and responding to my experience in a creative way.

I love trying to craft a piece of writing by choosing the right words and, in the case of poetry, shaping the poem on the page. I am also in awe of the human body and brain. Writing gives me a way to explore the mystery of the way we function mentally and physically at a lot of different levels. It keeps me learning. I like the way that poetry allows an opening of our senses and blurs the artificial divide between art and science. [Read more…] about Poetry and medicine