An excerpt from Winter’s End: Dementia and Dying Well. Are there really fates worse than death? Like most people, Dan Winter was uncertain. That is until he visited his father at a memory care unit in Lawrence, Kansas. Dan’s father had been…
Category: Conditions
Navigating COVID: a journey from academic intensity to healing
Springtime. Blooming trees. Green grass. Cool winds. Sunny skies. COVID. That is where my mind wanders every year since 2020, when the season turns. I flash back to the drive between the hospital and my home. Every evening after fighting a losing battl…
I had a (incorrect) memory screening. Have you even had one?
Although it’s hard for me to comprehend and even harder to admit, I’m “of age” to be on Medicare. Recently, I visited my primary care physician (PCP) for a Medicare Annual Wellness Visit, a one-hour appointment that requires the…
Embracing vulnerability: a doctor’s journey of healing and connection
One doctor I’ve worked with had gotten caught up in the idea of being a doctor. She realized, during her training with us, that she had stopped looking her patients in the eye. In fact, she had stopped making eye contact with her patients when sh…
Breaking free from denial: Embracing the truth
I understand it well. You persuade yourself that everything is fine. And then you persuade others that your marriage is perfect. You’re facing a terminal illness, but you’re the exception because it surely can’t happen to you. YouR…
Preventing amputations and saving lives starts with bringing PAD into the 21st century
There’s a condition that is crippling Black and brown communities at a disproportionate rate and causing 400 amputations each day in the U.S. That may sound scary, but the most frightening part? A new consumer survey found that 70 percent of Amer…
Optimizing IUD placement: prescribed medications and timing tips
I’ve been inspired by a recent New York Times article that came out about IUDs, better known as intrauterine devices, and how painful and horrible some of the experiences for women have been over the years. Since writing some of these thoughts, I…
Post-delivery complications: a glimpse into obstetric care
The red climbs up. She just delivered, and the arm of my gown. It seeps under the glove, soaking the cuff. She’s still bleeding. No worries – I call for the postpartum hemorrhage meds in the order I’ve memorized and used successfully hundre…
Youth are changing perceptions of death: Here’s what they want you to know
There is a diary entry of mine (Sparks) from when I learned that the pandemic would last longer than we initially thought. 17 years old at the time, I described my feelings of fear at the thought that I may die. “I don’t know if there’…
How psychiatry fails trauma survivors
Psychiatry has a duty to be trauma-informed, given that 50 to 60 percent of the general population, and around 90 percent of people with severe mental illness, have a lifetime history of at least one traumatic event. Yet the mental health system often …
