Doc Gurley

I was a third year med student before I found out what pimping was. No. Not that kind, the medical kind. See, the insider slang in medicine for a certain type of aggressive questioning is…well, pimping.
Doc Gurley Med Slang Dictionary: pimping; (def.) verb, as in to pimp; was pimped; got pimped; will be pimped. Used [...]

Yeowza! Who knew that structural cells within your body are going on field trips? Raise your hands. No one? Well, neither did I. Last year we awarded a Doc Gurley Most Explosive Medical News of 2007 prize to a body (har) of work which shows that any woman who has ever been pregnant has male [...]

Some great news for all pregnant women - especially those at risk for premature births. It looks like plain old mag sulfate can dramatically cut the risk of cerebral palsy. Magnesium sulfate is already one of the best choices for controlling early contractions and now it seems it has other benefits too.
Normal cells may be [...]

This week’s Grand Rounds is a tour-de-Shakespearean-force at the wonderful Dr. Chan’s Rural Doctoring. Tune in for both a round-up of the best of the healthcare blogosphere AND a bright refresher of some of the Bard’s best lines. If you’re not a regular visitor to Rural Doctoring, poke around - there’s some elegant, insightful and [...]

The price of gas goes up, less people die. Reports show that’s not just a prediction, but a reality. The good news is that 6,000 people will survive this year who otherwise would have died. But it all seems so…well, abstract - especially compared to very detailed pain (would you like a receipt with that?) [...]

Back-to-school is a distinctive memory for all of us over the age of 7. There are few things more evocative than the smell of a pristine box of new crayons. All those sharp little points, begging you to take a chance, to pick a color and be creative. When you’re in school, there’s so much [...]

Yeah! A BOGUS Award winner here at Doc Gurley - this time for a Gold-Medal-Worthy triple jump of BOGUS assumptions. How big are these leaps? Let’s just say these could, in comparison, make the powerful Olympian from Cameroon look like she’s merely doing the bunny hop. Follow along, as we track a minor, small-study-result to [...]

The balance of power (or powerlessness) just shifted. A shocking new survey from the Commonwealth Fund shows that we have reached the day when the MAJORITY of Americans (insured or not) report having serious trouble because of healthcare costs. Keep in mind that these grim statistics were recorded in 2007, before the current economic meltdown. [...]

Check out this week’s Grand Rounds over at the inspired, intelligent, and informed Kerri’s Six Until Me. I recently bought a friend a set of temporary Librarian Tatoos - with slogans, in the best Harley Hawg style, like Book Lust and Dewey’s My Main Man. Dewey, however, is clearly not Kerri’s main man - he’s [...]

Gum and Guts: Here’s a nice review of studies showing that smacking sugarless gum after bowel surgery aids in the return of gut-function. For those of you who’ve survived gut-surgery, you already know that one of the more surreal aspects of the experience is the post-op early morning routine. There you are, groggy and slightly [...]

Welcome to our first edition of News From The Fourth World. So what do we here at Doc Gurley mean by “the Fourth World”? It’s a world you see and deal with every day - maybe when you go downtown, maybe when you’re on vacation, or maybe right on the sidewalk in front of [...]

Doc Gurley waved a loving farewell to the wee Zipster this week. She’s been working through her sadness using art therapy. Her kids found her covered in red paint, wiping her cheeks at the kitchen table. She’ll pull out of it soon (or run out of pastels first). Help Doc Gurley move out of her [...]

Zippy knew Doc Gurley had something special in store for him for his last day with her, but he wasn’t sure what. When she woke him and told Zippy the two of them were going to hit the road, he got a bit panicky and wouldn’t come out of his tent. Doc Gurley had to [...]

Zippy knew there was one place he really wanted to visit while he was here in the Bay Area – the Children’s Hospital of Oakland. Lots of kids get superb treatment here for all kinds of problems, especially the problems closest to Zippy’s heart – kids with brain tumors. Oakland Children’s Hospital takes care of [...]

Zippy got down with the beat at the famous Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop for kids. Hundreds of kids came to the workshop from around the country, including New Orleans.
It made Zippy’s heart swing with the rhythm of happiness to see all these kids, learning, growing, and joyfully playing together. Here is Zippy on-stage, getting [...]

We bundled up Zippy for the San Francisco summertime chill and headed into the big city. Everyone knows, you can’t visit San Francisco without a trolley car ride. Here’s Zippy getting the (well-deserved) V.I.P. treatment. It takes a tough shell and a tender heart to do what Zippy does - travel off to unknown lands, [...]

Lots of people have questions about Zippy, so we thought we’d answer a few here at Doc Gurley:
1) Where does Zippy sleep?
Zippy loves camping, but he comes inside for any hint of bad weather - it messes with his styling gel. Here is one of his campsites.
2) How did Zippy take a picture of Doc [...]

City Hall in San Francisco is a place of power, fame, and politics. Although a lowly lobster might quake (as strongly as a 1906 shocker) at the idea of venturing into such powerful currents, Zippy knows no fear when it comes to advocating for his kids with brain tumors. So how far will a small [...]

With Olympic frenzy in the air, Zippy had to check out the reason for all this aquatic fuss. Sure, the South may be football crazy (go dawgs), North Carolina may be basketball crazy (woo-hoo tarheels) but the Bay Area is definitely swim crazy. It just seems a little odd to a lobster, all this fuss [...]

Feeling trampled by your insurance carrier? Trying to dig yourself out of mountains of baffling hospital bills? Too sick to negotiate anything about your care? Here’s a nice article about health advocates and what they can do for you - proving once again that where there’s a serious need, someone will step up and fill [...]