BLOG: The sixth November
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
There is no error in the title.
It is not the 6th of November, but indeed the sixth November since I began writing this blog, “From the Doctor’s Bag.” The blog was launched on November 21, 2016, with the inaugural post about Yanni.
I appreciate the opportunity that Healio provided to me to write this blog, which is a blend of humanities and light science. Over the last 6 years since its launch, I have immensely enjoyed writing. This is 117th post; depending on time availability I have written about two posts per month, occasionally more, and occasionally less.
In every November, to my recollection, I have written about the many occasions and events that occur in November. Some are annual occasions or occurrences, and some happen sporadically.
Of the annual occasions, some that I have discussed are public/national and some are special or personal.
Of the nonpersonal November’s occasions, the most common are the end of daylight-saving time, deer hunting season, elections and World Diabetes Day, to name a few.
I have discussed in the inaugural post and in subsequent posts, how the daylight-saving time change has caused confusion in people’s lives since its inception, stemming from changing the clock by 1 hour back and forth in the fall and spring. In addition, health-related harms have been described including traffic accidents, heart attacks and glitches in insulin pumps due to patients forgetting to adjust the time settings.
A special annual November occasion is our annual endocrine symposium, MSU’s Michigan Annual Endocrine Symposium, MAES. This symposium was established in the mid-1970s by the founder of MSU’s endocrinology division, late Dr. David Rovner. We hold this symposium around World Diabetes Day on November 14. This year, we convened MAES in association with a reunion we held for our endocrinology graduate fellows.
Another special November occasion is Yanni’s birthday, November 14. In the inaugural post, I talked about how I became a fan of Yanni’s music, dating back to 20 years ago when I was completing a study on gestational diabetes while doing a locum job at Tawam Hospital in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, when I incidentally came across a CD of one of Yanni’s albums. As I enjoyed his music, I started to learn more about him, and that is when I discovered his birthday, coincides with World Diabetes Day. This has encouraged me to propose a charity to Yanni’s management, a fund foundation for diabetes research, to be established from revenues recouped from a proposed concert on our campus. Unfortunately, so far, this charity proposal has not been achieved.
Of the personal November occasions, November 15 was my daughter Jinan’s birthday (born in 1996). Jinan passed away in childhood of a rare congenital brain disorder, called schizencephaly. Losing Jinan was very devastating to my family, at a time when I had just started my endocrine career in the first job following fellowship in a new state. I detailed Jinan’s story in an early post in this blog.
Of the sporadic occasions that have occurred in November, I wrote about the special occurrence of the super moon. As I wrote in the inaugural post, “November 14, 2016, marked the occurrence of the largest full moon since 1948, a natural phenomenon that occurs about once a century.”
This November, another sporadic occasion is occurring as we speak: The World Soccer Cup. To my knowledge, this worldwide, very popular sports event usually occurs in the summer. But this time around, the World Cup is held in November due to the extreme weather conditions in the hosting country, Qatar.
Occurring in November, the World Cup is thus coinciding with the peak of the American football professional and college seasons. This prompts a discussion about the difference between soccer and American football.
The two games are played so differently. Almost everywhere outside of the US, soccer is called football, which is played almost exclusively with the foot, only the goal keeper is allowed to use hands. Whereas the American football is played almost exclusively with the hands (except when punting after fourth down or shooting for field goals). So, non-Americans wonder why Americans call their game football whereas it is mostly played not with the foot; and they wonder where the name soccer came from!
The last occasion in November, Thanksgiving, is the special occasion when people enjoy their time with family members and loved ones.
On the sixth anniversary of this blog, I wish all my readers health, wellness and peace of mind.
Collapse