Oregon Physician's New Book Explores Lighter Side of Ailments. . - Book Notices - Medica Poetica: Malady in Verse - book review

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  June, 2003  

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An Oregon family physician may not have the cure for what ails you, but she sure has a unique way of explaining what's wrong.

In her new book, Medica Poetica: Malady in Verse, Sylvia Seroussi Chatroux, MD presents the lighter side of medical ailments while never losing sympathy with her patients. Each of the book's 83 poems covers a common condition, from earaches to poison oak to pinworm. Medica Poetica also takes a humorous look at life's passages, including puberty and menopause.

"After years of practicing medicine, I have come to understand something about many illnesses, and that a doctor's empathy may help as much as the remedy," Dr. Chatroux says. "I wrote this book to educate and add humor to an often-dry field."

The book has universal appeal, Chatroux says, and can be instructive and relaxing for patients as well as for their doctors. "Sylvia's poems carry a depth and speak directly to the meeting of suffering patient and caring physician," says Oregon physician Deborah Gordon, MD.

Dr. Chatroux, an exuberant, dark-haired woman, is a homeopath as well as allopathic doctor. Her first book of poetry, Materia Poetica, a collection of 101 homeopathic remedies in verse published in 1999 received excellent reviews in the homeopathic community

The 154-page clothbound book, with 18th and 19th century medical woodcuts, is available through Poetica Press for $18.

877-POETICA (763-8422)

www.poeticapress.com

Sample Poems

from Medica Poetica: Malady in Verse by Sylvia Seroussi Chatroux, MD

Menopause

Menopause may have some flaws
Of these I'll quickly state
I'm gaining weight
My brain's not straight
And night's no longer quiet
I'm often up before the dog
And now I'm on a diet
These flashes, hot
I sure have got
A Power Surge to some
Are weird, bizarre
They wake me up
I'm hotter than the sun
But here's the stuff that no one boasts
I'll lay it on the table
I used to wonder if I could
Now suddenly I'm able
I can say no
I can walk away
I create the life I want
My heating bill is going down
I am wiser than I'm not
There's been a shift as hormones fall
They're Power Surges after all!
I feel quite strong, I feel at peace
I list my goals and then proceed
I laugh out loud
I live out loud
It's really lots of fun
So Menopause embrace me now
I cycle with the sun!

Otitis Media

Why must mom endure these woes
Her little angel, Button Nose
Has got an earache, makes him cry
Springs a tear to mama's eye
Last week he had a tiny cold
Now his ear is full of woe
He is screaming, he is hot
Happy camper, we have not
They say it's 'cause he is a child
The ear canal just will not drain
That cold that was so very mild
Has led us down Otitis Lane
The ear is in a dismal state
Infected goobers populate
And on the eardrum is such pain
It's driving the whole house insane
The poor kid screams and tugs the ear
And parents lose their cool, I fear
I myself am one such Mom
Have rocked such kiddies in my arm
Could be that dairy did not help
Or feeding flat his nursing milk,
Or maybe not to wet the head
Keep it covered it is said
Anatomy, heredity or perhaps it's
  simply fate
It certainly provides relief
When kids outgrow this state.

COPYRIGHT 2003 The Townsend Letter Group
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