I decided this would be a good test for one of my birthday gifts from my amazon wishlist - a copy of this book. This is supposed to be a practical reference guide for female-oriented health problems. I picked it up and thumbed through it, and was distracted again by just how well-organized and useful the book is. It's cross-referenced in dozens of ways, it's written in plain language, and there are thousands (according to the cover, and flipping through it I certainly believe it) of simple explanatory drawings.

I picked a subject about which I know a few things to really test it out: pieces of placentas left in the womb after childbirth. This was a big issue for us when I worked at a large horse farm - after a birth, the placenta is expelled from the body (doesn't matter if it's a cat, a horse, or a human for the basics). You're supposed to carefully check it to see if it appears to be complete, and then weigh it for even more certainty, and then check the 'patient' over the next few hours/days to really confirm. This book covered all of that correctly, and even provided tables such that you'd know what it's *supposed* to weigh, and an illustration to show how to check the membrane for completeness. The next section was on how to tell if pieces had been retained - and then how to remove them in the absence of a real doctor/hospital. There was a point at which I saw the disappointing "if X is happening, see a doctor immediately." But then next to that was a page number. Flipping to that page, I saw "if there is no doctor, follow these steps." Simple instructions, illustrations, courses of treatments. A+ instructions. I could reasonably see someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of some of the techniques being able to figure it out using this book.

There are also sections on common, useful drugs, as well as little 'cheat sheets' on each one (and a simplistic, scaled down Material Safety Data Sheets) and details on how to give different types of injections. Again, complete with useful illustrations. There are even brief sections on psychological problems and crisis counselling. There are color-coded indices.

I am really impressed. If you don't have one of these, I highly recommend you get one. It's no substitute for real medical care, but I think it's an extremely useful reference, and would be good to have for any non-Monday-through-Friday-9-to-5 health questions.