New Resource: The Writer's Forensic Blog

I've been following Dr. Lyle's blog for awhile and have found some of his posts pretty interesting. D.P. Lyle is a medical professional who also blogs about medical accuracy. He will tend to have more of a forensic focus and has published a couple of resources in this area.

Recently, someone posed a medical question I thought would be of interest to my historical authors. The question was: In 1863, could an autopsy accurately determine the cause of death?

Here's a link to the post: http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/question-and-answer-in-1863-could-an-autopsy-accurately-determine-the-cause-of-death/.

Enjoy,

Jordyn

Soderlund Drug Store Museum

 

Kathleen joins us again this Friday for an interesting piece on her trip to Soderlund Pharmacy Museum.

 A Charming Historical and Visual Resource for Writers

Writing about a character who’d been a pharmacist in 1901 small town America presented a challenge and sent me searching. After all, this gentleman was practicing his craft prior to the passing of the Pure Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1907 and national legalized standards for the profession.

I happily stumbled upon the William and Joan Soderland Pharmacy Museum web site. The colorful photographs of show globes intrigued me. Just what are show globes? These were beautifully crafted glass jars filled with colored liquid. While legends abound as to their origin, including the use of red liquid to signify an epidemic in town or green to signal the all clear, the likely story is much simpler. Chemists, later called pharmacists, made many of their medical preparations from herbs. Since the historical pharmacist didn’t need a formal education or a license to practice until the 20^th century, they demonstrated their prowess in making chemical compounds through the show globes, sometimes layering different density and color liquids for a striped effect.

There are several pages at the Soderlund Drug Store Museum web site, containing a plethora of trivia and useful information regarding the history of the American drug store and pharmaceutical companies prior to 1958. Colorful and historical photographs also abound.

I had the privilege of visiting the Soderlund Pharmacy Museum in quaint St. Peter, Minnesota last summer. Along most of the back wall stand cabinets filled with bottles, jars and boxes that once held patent medicines and individual ingredients, which are often herbs that you would recognize in any health food store today. It would take hours to study the many labels of the lotions and potions contained behind the glass. These donated items span decades of the apothecary's trade and include key ingredients, as well as once popular patent preparations such as Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound and Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription Tablets.

A 1920’s style soda fountain in the corner supplies complimentary glasses of locally brewed root beer, a refreshing treat on a hot summer day! A visit to the drugstore museum, housed within Soderlund Village Drug, returns visitors to the ambience of the typical Main Street pharmacy of yesteryear.

While it may not be possible for you to visit in person, their web site is worth your time, providing not only different aspects of history of the American drug store and pharmaceutical industry, but also many visuals that can be helpful for the writer. So pour yourself a glass of root beer, get cozy in your most comfortable chair and prepare for a journey back in time at www.drugstoremuseum.com

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Kathleen lives in Michigan with her hero and husband of 29 years. First, a wife and mother, she is “retired” after 20 years of home educating their three sons, who are all grown and have moved away.  

Since then, Kathleen returned to Oakland Community College to complete a Liberal Arts degree and a certificate of achievement in ophthalmic assisting. Last year the American Board of Opticianry certified her.

Kathleen has been published in Home School Digest and An Encouraging Word magazines. She writes regularly for the local women’s ministry “Sisters” newsletter. She also contributes articles and author interviews to FavoritePASTimes.blogspot.com, a blog devoted mostly to historical fiction. Read about her fiction writing endeavors at: http://www.kathleenrouser.com/

Fractures: General Guidelines

Fiction, particularly the thriller genres, generally require a character to sustain an injury. These can run the gamut from minor to life-threatening.

Today, I'm going to focus on a couple of general guidelines if you injure a character with some type of fracture.

Remember, if you leave a comment this month, you'll be eligible to win a copy of Brandilyn Collins novel, Over the Edge.

Though it may be hard to break a bone, sometimes it seems the most minor accidents can cause a fracture. My mother once slipped off a small rock onto the side of her foot. Her foot was bruised and mildly swollen and in my nursing wisdom (I was only in nursing school at the time), I said, "There's no way you broke it slipping sideways off a rock." Needless to say I was wrong. Yes, broken foot.

Guideline #1: The amount of swelling is not indicative of fracture. Ankle injuries are classic for this. Patients come in with a horribly swollen ankle, convinced they broke it. My guess in the pediatric realm (up to age 21), the ankle is 95% of the time sprained and not broken. Arms that have an obvious deformity and you can see the limb is broken before you get an x-ray, have little swelling in comparison.

Guideline #2: If something is broken, generally the joint above and below will need to be immobilized (or very close to the next joint). Someone asked me once if a person broke one bone in their lower leg, could they drive? There are two bones in the lower leg: the tibula and the fibula. Depending on how close the fracture is to the knee, the ankle and knee will have to be immobilized. I don't know how many people can drive with a straight leg.

Guideline #3: Splints are placed first. It is rare to put a cast on in the emergency department. The reason splints are placed first is to allow for swelling to come and go. A splint is generally fiberglass sheets secured in place with an ace wrap. This allows for expansion during swelling. Then in 7-10 days, the patient is referred to an orthopedic doctor for cast placement.

Guideline #4: A good rule is that a cast will be in place for 6-8 weeks. Now, this is highly variable and if an author said the cast needed to stay in place for nine weeks, it probably wouldn't drive me nuts enough to go check it out. However, a cast on for two weeks is unlikely. You should consider this guideline because it will effect your character for that length of time and inhibit their mobility. Maybe, this is something you want as the author.

Guideline #5: My observation: these bones/joints have a higher incidence of requiring surgery: ankle, elbow, and femur. Now, you can make any fracture bad enough to require surgery but these ones can be more common to require the OR.

What other guidelines would you like to see?

Medical Question: Bleeding after Delivery

Don't forget, just a few days left to be eligible to win Brandilyn's book. Leave a comment this month for your chance to win Over the Edge.

Carol Asks: A woman has a baby in a major US city. Right now I've got her basically bleeding to death when they can't stop post partum hemorrage. I don't know why she's hemorraging [and in the text I've left it at 'we can't stop the bleeding'] and the doc takes her to have a hysterectomy [which her hubby is told will take a couple hours?]. She then dies in surgery. I've left it pretty vague because I can't find any stats or anything. I'm glad in one sense because that means it doesn't happen very often, but doesn't help me with research.

Do you have any suggestions? Or if I leave it vague [it's his memory - it's gonna be blurry at best] is that good enough?




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Jordyn Says: Carol, thanks so much for your question. I did some searching on Google under "causes of post-partum hemorrhage" because, medically this is what is happening to your character. Here are some of the causes:
1. Uterine atony: After a child is delivered, the uterus should contract down to "clamp off" all the blood vessels that are bleeding. This is what the OB nurse is checking for after delivery. The uterus should feel "hard as a rock". If it doesn't, it may feel boggy (mushy), and the OB nurse will massage it to get it to firm up. If the uterus won't firm up, clamp down on those blood vessels, the patient will continue to bleed.

http://www.uptodate.com/contents/overview-of-postpartum-hemorrhage

2. Other causes: Retained placental tissue (where parts of the placenta stay inside the uterus), laceration of tissues or blood vessels in the pelvis and genital tract (a laceration would be a cut), and maternal coagulopathies (some sort of bleeding disorder in the mother where the blood is unable to clot). An additional, though uncommon, cause is inversion of the uterus during placental delivery (this is where the uterus would be turned inside out).

This is a good overview:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/796785-overview

Photo from: http://blog.timesunion.com/parenting/1626/the-line-on-your-pregnant-belly-will-go-away-%E2%80%94-eventually/

Hope this is helpful. What suggestions do you have for Carol? We'll have to see if Heidi is able to weigh in!

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Carol Moncado lives with her husband in Southwest Missouri. When she isn’t writing Inspirational Romance or Romantic Suspense, she’s teaching American Government at a community college, hanging out with her four kids, reading, or watching NCIS. You can find her at: http://www.carolmoncado.com/, http://www.carolmoncado.wordpress.com/ , and her newest blog, Pentalk Community Blog, where she serves as editor-in-chief: http://www.pentalkcommunity.blogspot.com/ .