The Healing Art of Writing

What an incredible reading I participated in at Open Secret bookstore in San Rafael, California this past Saturday night. Some of us published in the anthology The Healing Art of Writing, Volume One read to a super  supportive audience. David Watts, one of the editors as well as a contributor, introduced the event, making everyone [...]

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A Time for Sea Creature

I had the most wonderful blogpost in mind for this past Saturday morning. Just one more read-through of the article Friday night and…………….. Not so fast. Snail mail came early Friday afternoon, along with the letter that I had hoped I would never see—my rejection letter from the University of Nebraska American Lives Series. My [...]

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Our Magnificent Existence

Reading Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight, A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey, is teaching me so much. At age thirty-seven, Jill suffered a massive stroke, and she shares her courageous experience of recovery in this wonderful book. As healing is the theme of my blog and as I’ve been healing and working [...]

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First photos of me after surgery

I was surprised to discover that these photos were taken after my return home from the hospital, where I had an operation for pyloric stenosis that  saved my life at 26 days old. I always thought they were taken right after my birth before I got sick. How could I have thought that–a nice family [...]

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A Lesson in Medical Humanities

Thank you English 1A Composition students at the College of Alameda for reading and commenting on my blog. It was wonderful to get to know you better through your responses to my posts and our discussions in class. I am looking forward to reading the essays that you wrote in response to a medical humanities [...]

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“The Bellow of a Resected Colon” by Roey Shmool

Wendy here. I’m so happy to introduce Roey to the readers of myincision. What follows is his brief biography and his autobiographical piece, “The Bellow of a Resected Colon.”  Please direct your Comments to Roey. I hope he hears from you. ********************** My name is Roey Shmool. I was born with Hirschsprung’s disease and had 7 surgeries [...]

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Oral History – Untreated PTSD

Dentist’s chair, twelve years old, East Orange, New Jersey: Dr. Salada calls my mother into the room to see the caverns I’ve bitten out of the walls of my mouth. He peels my lower lip down to show her the gouges. I, too am shocked when he holds the mirror up so I can see. [...]

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A Must-read Book

I just finished reading, for the second time, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing, by Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D. and Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt.  She speaks to so many of the ideas that I believe in with regards to the way modern medicine must be [...]

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One Year Old

I want to share a tiny piece of my memoir, The Autobiography of a Sea Creature, with you and the photos from which the memory was drawn. The excerpt is taken from chapter one in which I narrate the story of my surgery for pyloric stenosis and some memories of my early relationship with sea [...]

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Sea Creature: The Revision

I’m back to finishing my memoir, The Autobiography of a Sea Creature, preparing the first chapter for yet one more round of edits, this time at The Healing Art of Writing Conference next week at Dominican University in San Rafael, California.  The conference should be great with lots of talented writers, both participants and presenters, [...]

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