While the stories are fictional, the medical conditions are factual. I'll do my best to provide a reading list, link to explanations and/or provide comments for those who are interested in learning more.
The birth of this blog sprung forth from my love of fantastic worlds and fantasy stories, mixed in with my sheer amazement of our own world as well. During my final years of medical school extending into my intern year as a Family Medicine resident, I found myself with a plethora of stories that I wanted to share but I was stymied by the burgeoning constraints of patient confidentiality, stiff professionalism re: "social media" and a sheer lack of time. To be quite frank, I was getting burned out and I no longer enjoyed blogging.
I felt the best solution was to combine my hobby with my calling... and just write what I know and love.
Many entries take the perspectives of a young halfling and gnome duo studying in the Iatrotorium. As such, the entries may at times seem to reflect my life but it is still fiction -- while stories may be based on cases I've had, I will de-identify all patients by HIPAA standards and the entries do not reflect my opinions, those of my organization or any other Ill-Fated-Souls who work with me.
Furthermore, I aim to write from the perspective of fantasy creatures like hags, witches, orcs, trolls and goblins in a thoughtful manner to demonstrate certain principles; hopefully with a twist to reflect the "human" nature of fallibility, illness, strength and perseverance that we all possess. A story about witches with warts, an orc with cancer, a dwarf with emphysema, and all the rest should be taken as fanciful stories about individuals with disease and not a reflection on any group or denote a negative connotation on anyone in our reality.
(Attention Critical Theorists: the story is set upon a pseudo-medieval/renaissance backdrop shifting into a Victorian steampunk era. The setting does not imply that I am an apologist for any of the morals/values set forth, although I will try to derive a rational set of principles and a way forward from the background if you stick with me through the story!)
If you've found your way here to my corner of the interwebs, I hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment :)
(My previous blog can be found at notmysecondopinion.blogspot.com.)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
