ahaagsma's blog

Today, 1 May, I am going to join many of my colleagues to thank and celebrate our medical teachers, our colleagues, and our patients too, on National Physicians’ Day in Canada. 

In the past few weeks I have been limping with a painful left hip—secondary to a bit of age-related osteoarthritis. Oh, to be young again! Or at least rejuvenated! Those thoughts crossed my mind twice in the past few days. First when I came across an article in the National Post about a 60-year-old Dutchman who applied to the courts to have his birth date legally changed to be 20 years younger. Second, when I read about the Irish Nobel laureate (1923) poet W.B. Yeats’ (1865–1939) attempted rejuvenation.

Recently a group of astronomers have made inroads into a terrestrial problem—with some down-to-earth applicability to the medical community.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons there is an increasing demand for genital cosmetic surgery for women and men. Labiaplasty, clitoral hood reduction, reduction in the size of the mons pubis, and vaginal tightening are the more frequently requested procedures by women. Other requests include hymen reconstruction surgery, platelet rich plasma injection into the clitoral area and into the site of the controversial G-spot in the vaginal wall. Some men request elongation and girth enhancement of their genitalia.

My sweet wife, Bess, is languishing in her deep dementia. As it is, I say thanks each day of the year to our caregivers, friends, doctors, pharmacists, food and drugstore store clerks, gardeners, plumbers, post persons, people running the Internet, clothing store people, the master of therapy dog Pixie, and many others—even bankers—all of whom are vital to her home care. So I thought that this year on Thanksgiving Day I will pay special homage to the materials and physical equipment that aid us in her care.