If you are a fan of pharma, you might want to skip this article. Some pharma enthusiasts will call it a rant. By pharma, I mean avaricious pharmaceutical (a pleonasm) companies collectively. On the other hand, those of you who treat acute migraines wil…
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…
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…
“Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!” – Joseph B. Wirthlin I love my role as a hospice volunteer mostly because I enjoy meeting the patients and hearing their life stories. I heard a tale from the V…
Teresa has Down syndrome and was 49 when the capacity assessment took place in Ontario. I saw her as happy, healthy, and active. She enjoyed living nearby with my 91-year-old father, who often said, “We’re a team. We help each other.”…
You can’t treat something until you know it’s there. Currently, there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but earlier diagnosis may lead to better understanding of how the disease inexorably progresses, which in turn may lead…
An excerpt from Releasing the Butterfly: A Love Affair in Four Acts. Imagine there must be thousands, if not millions, of family members and caregivers who wonder what it must be like to be the one who has Alzheimer’s. Genie and I have always sha…
I recently worked a 28-hour shift in the hospital. I am on a rotation where I work these long shifts every four days, and my last 3 or 4 of these shifts have been the kind that really tries a person’s soul. I got called all night to see new patie…
It’s been said that the challenges neurodiverse people face are the ones that neurotypical people view as easy, and vice versa. It speaks to the hard-wired diversity of cognitive styles and perspectives among different individuals. Neurotypical p…
Dr. Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore) stars in ABC’s The Good Doctor, a television drama that centers around an autistic surgeon whose job at the hospital was frequently threatened and would be lost if it were not for the practical and em…
