Lifeliner Podcast Archives - Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy

Jeej leaves the country on business, and Judy fades. She’s had a longer life than she’d ever thought possible back in 1970, and she decides it’s time to say good-bye. Yet death is not the end. And her life is not the beginning and end of TPN. Her example, her courage, her life inspired others… Continue reading Lifeliner: Podcast 29, 30, And Epilogue The post Lifeliner: Podcast 29, 30, And Epilogue appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Cliff finds Judy dying in Toronto General Hospital. Panicked, he phones Jeej at his home. Jeej is astounded, but advises Cliff to transfer her to St. Michael’s Hospital if he wants him to look after her. Within hours, Judy is at the Queen Street hospital, and Jeej is there with his residents and the nurses.… Continue reading Lifeliner: Podcast 28, Despair The post Lifeliner: Podcast 28, Despair appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Some change is not good. Judy’s doctor, the man who saved her life and kept her alive for almost two decades, has moved to a new hospital. Worse, the TPN program did not move with him because Toronto General Hospital fought for and won the battle to keep it. While Jeej works to train people… Continue reading Lifeliner: Podcast 27, Dr. Cowboy, Where Are You? The post Lifeliner: Podcast 27, Dr. Cowboy, Where Are You? appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

“It was like travelling with a celebrity,” Marlene told me when I was interviewing her about Judy Taylor. Nowhere was that more true than on their road trips down to New York state for the annual Oley conferences. Judy loved those conferences, meeting fellow patients, being able to travel with her friends from Toronto General… Continue reading Lifeliner: Podcast 26, LifelineLetter Award The post Lifeliner: Podcast 26, LifelineLetter Award appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

In this chapter, Judy starts experiencing the consequences of too little nutrient knowledge early in her life on TPN. Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, not much was known about Vitamin D given intravenously; because of Judy, they discovered the requirements are much less in TPN than in a normal food diet. At first, it… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 25 Podcast The post Lifeliner: Chapter 25 Podcast appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy cannot believe it. For the first time in her life, she’s travelling in a plane over the clouds and over the seas. To Sweden. To be a star guest of Prof Arvid Wretlind at an international medical conference. She’s so thrilled, she’s not going to let a little thing like a skin abscess stop… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 24 Podcast, Sweden The post Lifeliner: Chapter 24 Podcast, Sweden appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy fears bugs, the viral or bacterial kind, even a cold. For bugs can kill her. She takes pains to avoid them. Somehow though, she catches one. She quickly spirals down, and Cliff races her down the highways to Toronto General Hospital and Jeej. It’s touch and go. The entire hospital hears about it and… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 23 Podcast The post Lifeliner: Chapter 23 Podcast appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

The fall out from Judy being absent for so long and then her life being one where death was ever present, continues. First Miriam leaves home, then Julie springs a surprise on her parents. Judy goes through a raft of emotions, but she never loses contact with her girls. Chapter Twenty-Two: More Family Trouble The post Lifeliner: Chapter 22 Podcast, More Family Trouble appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Sometimes the price people pay for being the first, being a pioneer, appears in their children. And so it was for Judy. It began in her eldest, first with minor rebellion then with running away and finally with an arrest. Judy didn’t know what to do. In the end, she had to send her daughter… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 21 Podcast The post Lifeliner: Chapter 21 Podcast appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

This chapter is a story about diabetes, about how a remarkable discovery was made because of Judy, because of Jeej’s work with her. They discovered that chromium plays a vital role in diabetes. It was decades before the wider scientific and research audience started to understand the full ramifications of this discovery, but at the… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 20 Podcast, Chromium Deficiency and the Swedish Professor The post Lifeliner: Chapter 20 Podcast, Chromium Deficiency and the Swedish Professor appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy becomes famous. A reporter for Weekend Magazine in The Globe & Mail drives up to spend a day following her, talking to her, learning her remarkable story. Meanwhile, she complains about fuzzy feet to Jeej. He scratches his head over this unexpected development and after a few tests, discovers that she has diabetes. But… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 19 Podcast, JJ, the Guinea Pig The post Lifeliner: Chapter 19 Podcast, JJ, the Guinea Pig appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy feels good. She dives into community and family life after learning a skill she never needed in Toronto: driving. She becomes active in the local church, joining the choir, volunteering in the office, being the first to offer to cook the main meal for an event. And she joins the pastoral team to visit… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 18 Podcast, The Bliss of Life The post Lifeliner: Chapter 18 Podcast, The Bliss of Life appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Time to celebrate! Judy had told Jeej that she wanted to thank him by throwing a barbecue, and she’s true to her word. She invites all of us too, Jeej’s family. I’m almost ten years old at the time, and I’m excited about meeting this amazing woman. I not only meet her, but also the… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 17 Podcast, Barbecue Season The post Lifeliner: Chapter 17 Podcast, Barbecue Season appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

They said fat was bad. They said fat will lead to a fatty liver. They said fat, intravenous fat, was toxic. But when Judy came to Jeej with flaky skin after he took her off intravenous fat, he finally had the proof he needed. Fat was good. The experts were wrong. At last, a Canadian… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 16 Podcast, Essential Fat The post Lifeliner: Chapter 16 Podcast, Essential Fat appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

The hospital pharmacy provides Judy with only 2 weeks worth of food at a time. So twice a month, Judy bakes cookies, Cliff hitches up his homemade trailer, and they drive down to the city, down the Parkway, down to Toronto General Hospital to pick up her solutions and vitamins, her cold stuff and room… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 15 Podcast, Supply Run The post Lifeliner: Chapter 15 Podcast, Supply Run appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy mayn’t be able to eat, but she lives to cook. Having at last returned home from spending 10 months in the hospital, she eagerly resumes her purpose: to nurture and care for her family, especially at dinnertime. And Sunday dinners are the most special of them all. Chapter Fourteen: A Different Kind of Dinnertime The post Lifeliner: Chapter 14 Podcast, A Different Kind of Dinnertime appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Jeej, still riding high on the good news that Judy will be able to live at home, ponders how to disconnect her from her artificial feeding so that she can go out and about. He and his residents solve that problem, only to see Judy have an unexpected setback in her test results. It puzzles… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 13 Podcast, Going Home with Lester The post Lifeliner: Chapter 13 Podcast, Going Home with Lester appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

It’s a drizzly Easter Monday as Jeej walks to the hospital. But the weather is no match for his mood. He has good news for Judy, but she doesn’t know it yet. When she hears, and later shares with Cliff, they can hardly believe it. The miracle that they had all been working towards —… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 12 Podcast, Easter Tidings The post Lifeliner: Chapter 12 Podcast, Easter Tidings appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Christmas is over. The staff are back. It’s time for more and different kinds of tests to see how Judy is doing, how this new artificial feeding is working. But Judy isn’t thrilled about the biopsies of liver and bone. To make matters worse, she doesn’t understand Jeej. He talks so fast. With the encouragement… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 11 Podcast, Tests and More Tests The post Lifeliner: Chapter 11 Podcast, Tests and More Tests appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Christmas Day dawns. Both Jeej and Judy’s children cannot contain their excitement. But there’s a person missing in Judy’s place: Judy. She cannot come home for Christmas as she is still too sick. And so while Jeej’s family enjoys the day together at home, Judy’s goes to the hospital. Chapter Ten: Christmas The post Lifeliner: Chapter 10 Podcast, Christmas appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

The Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) seems to be working, but the ultimate goal of sending Judy home on this artificial form of feeding cannot be realised until they figure out a permanent way of feeding the TPN solutions into her vein. Tubes falling out her vein regularly just will not work. Dr. Bernie Langer, Jeej’s… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 9 Podcast, The Langer Line The post Lifeliner: Chapter 9 Podcast, The Langer Line appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

As Judy heals, she becomes more conscious of her situation, of the extent of her illness, of the odds against her, and Jeej feels that she may fall into despair as a result. He talks to Cliff. Contrary to the ethos of the day, Jeej tells Cliff to bring the children in to see Judy.… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 8 Podcast, Judy’s Inspiration The post Lifeliner: Chapter 8 Podcast, Judy’s Inspiration appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy liked to joke about being a pincushion for Jeej, about it being easier to put a zipper into her abdomen, about her dates with the knife. And one of her favourite expressions was “I could be pushing up daisies.” She could’ve. For on her third date in the operating room, she died. Chapter Seven:… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 7 Podcast, “I Could Be Pushing Up Daisies” The post Lifeliner: Chapter 7 Podcast, “I Could Be Pushing Up Daisies” appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Let Judy die, let her die with dignity, Judy’s mother pleads with Jeej. Let Judy die, this is madness, assert Jeej’s senior colleagues, insisting he not waste hospital resources. Under mounting pressure, Jeej agrees to withdraw antibiotic therapy from Judy for four days, but he refuses to stop feeding her artificially. If the bacteria doing… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 6 Podcast, Let Judy Die The post Lifeliner: Chapter 6 Podcast, Let Judy Die appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy’s skin has been starving, like the rest of her body, and cannot hold the stitches anymore. Her surgical wound has opened up, creating a maw through which they can see her insides — and smell them too. The nurses have to come up with a unique way to dress this hole, keep the sheets… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 5 Podcast, Garbage-Bag Dressings The post Lifeliner: Chapter 5 Podcast, Garbage-Bag Dressings appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy protests as she’s slid into the ambulance, standing in the dark, waiting to move her from the suburban hospital to the big downtown teaching hospital Toronto General Hospital. This is all too much drama for her, but Dr. Jeejeebhoy awaits her, with his promise of life. She wants to live so much. Yet she’s… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 4 Podcast, Dr. Cowboy The post Lifeliner: Chapter 4 Podcast, Dr. Cowboy appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy is at Scarborough General Hospital, undergoing emergency surgery while Cliff waits anxiously at home with his neighbour. The surgeon calls him in the wee hours with good news. Cliff is ecstatic. But not for long. Soon the pain rises again, stronger even than post-operative pain. Another surgeon opens her up again and shock stills… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 3 Podcast, Surgeries and Starvation The post Lifeliner: Chapter 3 Podcast, Surgeries and Starvation appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Dr. Khursheed N. Jeejeebhoy has come to Toronto, Canada to practice his brand of medicine, as taught to him by his Zoroastrian grandmother. But as the newbie and one of only two minority doctors on staff at Toronto General Hospital, he gets the tough cases, the one no one else wants, and now one of… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 2 Podcast, Shunts! The post Lifeliner: Chapter 2 Podcast, Shunts! appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.

Judy Taylor had a simple dream for her life: grow up and have kids. But fate has other plans, and they come upon her rather painfully a few years after attaining her dream, her dream of a suburban life with husband Cliff, who works in sales, and their three daughters, ages 13 to 8. Chapter… Continue reading Lifeliner: Chapter 1 Podcast, Back in One Hour The post Lifeliner: Chapter 1 Podcast, Back in One Hour appeared first on Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy.