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Lay persons might think physicians spend all their time in hospitals or clinics or that physicians fly their private jets to exclusive resorts for long weekends. But physicians are regular people just like their patients, and, when not on the job, they do many of the same things for the same reasons: playing with pets and doing sports, music, and art. Physicians might not have a blue-ribbon dog, might not have played varsity basketball in college, might not have gone to Julliard before medical school, might not have had one-person exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but what they do when they are not wearing their white coats can make them better physicians when they put the coats back on again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poetry and Medicine Eight days after they had cut into my chest, put me on a bypass pump, excised a valve consumed by Staph, stitched a new one in I read what they had said about the scan of my head two weeks before. Footnotes 1 Article InformationCorresponding Author: Joseph Gascho, MD ().Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported. "Innumerable" I read, "Septic emboli" I read, "to both cerebral hemispheres.". [Extracted from the article]

The author reflects on how echocardiography has helped him as a cardiologist in diagnosing and treating his patients properly. He notes that in the process of learning about his patients' heart problems, he is also able to learn more about those persons. He mentions how images in medicine have been very helpful in making diagnoses and in planning treatments. He adds that the echo images produced conveys information about the disease and prognosis and adds another dimension to his thinking and imagination.

I felt good about myself, driving to the free medical clinic that evening. A full professor at a medical school, leaving my warm home on a cold night after a day at the hospital, seeing patients in clinic in the morning and teaching second‐year students medical ethics in the afternoon (autonomy was the theme; we'd covered beneficence and maleficence earlier in the week). Once a month, patients with cardiac problems come to the clinic, and this was the night. Two students presented the patient, a middle‐aged woman with chest pain. Their presentation was disjointed, in part because of their inexperience, in part because she spoke no English and her story was obtained with the help of a translator. Her eyes rarely met mine; she kept glancing at the translator. I auscultated her heart and lungs, letting the students listen through my stethoscope. What to do now? Had she been a patient that morning back in my clinic, I would have thought to myself, "I can't get a good history; why not do a stress test?" I thought, for what seemed like an eternity: If I send her for a stress test, that will deplete the funds needed for other patients. How important is this test? Is it really necessary? If I send her for a stress test, will someone with a suspicious mass on their chest x‐ray not be able to get a CT scan because no money is left? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A retrospective analysis of 165 patients who had diabetes mellitus and underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) between 1998 and 2003 demonstrated that those whose plasma glucose levels were ≥200 mg/dl before PCI exhibited greater creatine phosphokinase release and serum creatinine increases after PCI. These observations identified hyperglycemia as a potentially modifiable mediator of myocardial and renal injuries in patients who have diabetes and have undergone PCI. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the author's experiences with the medical condition tic douloureux (trigeminal neuralgia) and microvascular decompression surgery, and it mentions the late writer Ernest Hemingway's claim that seven-eighths of the reality of any given event lies beneath the surface. Right eye pain treatment and trigeminal nerve abnormalities are examined, along with patient-physician relations and pain's impact on autonomy.

The article offers information on ileum which when inflamed, lead to atria fibrillate, the blood coagulates and a clot in brain.

The poem "50M, LBBB" by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: It doesn't hurt, Last Line: will be a TKR.

The poem "Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation," by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: Not one word; Last Line: it must be bad.

The poem "Echocardiogram for Pericardial Effusion," by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: Was it by accident they found it— Last Line: Another thing you didn't know you didn't know.

The poem "72F, New Onset Atrial Fibrillation" by Dr. Joseph Gascho is presented. First line: Did they find it; Last line: if I get back to your neighborhood?"

The poem "The Joy of Medicine" by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: It's about the man; Last Line: but you do.

The poem "Death Wish of a Cardiac Transplant Patient," by Joseph Gascho. First Line: When they bury me; Last Line: can one ask for more?

The poem "The man with the empty belt loop," by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: You don't know; Last Line: when she thinks at all.

The poem "A Cardiologist Contemplates the Patient's Request" by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: He asked to turn it off, Last Line: or fire.

An untitled poem by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: thanks be for little things; Last Line: come home.

The poem "One of Us," by Joseph Gascho is presented. First Line: One of us asks, Last Line: Like a newborn baby.

The article presents the poem "My ICD," by Joseph A. Gascho. First Line: They tell me all's as well; Last Line: Were sober on the day they thought it up.