jjablkowski's blog

I am going to be 92 years old in a few weeks and am at a crossroad in my life. My wife of 66 years has been in the depths of her dementia for several years, being taken care of by efficient caregivers at home. Just recently she was admitted to a long-term care unit for her ongoing care. I also have to sell our house, where we have lived for 60 years.

It is not often that the BCMJ and the Lancet publish articles in the same time frame about the same topic but with significantly different perspectives. 

The Canadian Medical Association has represented doctors at the federal level since 1867, but membership has declined and dissatisfaction is growing. And if proposed changes to the CMA Board are accepted, things are about to get a lot worse. 

“House of Commons defeats bill to ban sex-selective abortion, but two thirds of Conservatives vote in favour,” was the headline in the 2 June 2021 edition of the National Post. Bill C-233 would have made it a crime “for a medical practitioner to perform an abortion knowing that the abortion is sought solely on the ground of the child’s genetic sex.”

Physicians should be aware of the TikTok Benadryl challenge, a social media trend in which teens are encouraged to ingest higher than recommended doses of the over-the-counter allergy medicine diphenhydramine (Benadryl) in order to achieve a “high.” Teens may perceive the over-the-counter drug to be relatively safe, and therefore, participate in the challenge.