One might say I’m on a roll. Halfway through the year I have already broken my 2017 record for best year. I have published three of my most read ever blog posts in the past three months. But, even combined, they don’t surpass my 2015 piece “Normal Blood Pressure”. If that one was a movie, it would be characterized as a sleeper. It describes a housecall on a snowy day in Van Buren. And I guess it is a fair little snapshot of the essence of rural medicine at the northern edge of my adopted homeland.
Osler said “Listen to your patient, he is telling you the diagnosis”. Duvefelt says “Listen to your patient, he is telling you what kind of doctor he needs you to be”.

Read my VERY FIRST blog post:
Most Read This Week

Blogroll (remodeling in progress)
Holiday Reflections
Older Favorite Posts
Posts That Went Unnoticed
Recent posts
- Of Mites and Men
- Two Interesting, Fast and Very Small Muscles Inside Our Skulls
- Primary Care Burnout: Crushed by the Upside Down Triangle of Today’s EMR
- Why I’d Like to See You Before Making a Referral
- Be the Guide, Not the Hero (Video)
- Is the Cologuard Test a Good Alternative to a Colonoscopy? (Corrected)
- The Horse Whistler (Another Glimpse from Life on the Farm)
- Two Cases of a Cool Skin Condition (Erythrocyanosis, Pernio or Chilblains, Anyone?)
- A Country Doctor’s Books
- A Country Doctor Writes is #9
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Despite my instruction for morning lasix, Lilly took hers at bedtime! House calls teach you a lot. Mid morning on a Saturday, Lilly was dressed fully; one might say “encased” in clothes. She had a bedside commode and patiently explained to me that the diuresis from the lasix was much more easily handled at night in her loose nightgown; over to the bedside commode, and easily back to sleep.
I also learned that she milked the cow before she fixed Sam’s breakfast. I suggested that she fix breakfast first. She later reported that her arthritic hands hurt much less with the milking.