After a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma at age twenty-eight, Emma Graves Fitzsimmons got smart about being in the sun. I wish I could say that I’ve always appreciated my porcelain skin. But for as long as I can remember, I’ve preferred the way I look with a tan and longed to be outdoors with the sun’s rays on my face. That all changed when I was diagnosed with basal cell … [Read more...] about Comfortable in My Own Skin
Issues
Fact Sheet: Skin Cancer
The Fitzpatrick Factor The father of modern academic dermatology and a giant in the advancement of clinical and investigative dermatology, Dr. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick was born in Madison, Wisconsin on December 19, 1919. Fitzpatrick went on to serve nearly 30 years as the chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Dermatology Service at … [Read more...] about Fact Sheet: Skin Cancer
Finding the Other: The Metamorphosis and Compassion
Molly McCloskey, the author of Circles Around the Sun, shares how one profound reading experience led her to better understand her older brother who suffers from schizophrenia. I can still recall, in the way one recalls the most powerful reading experiences of one’s life, lying on the bed in my studio apartment in Portland, Oregon, and reading “The Metamorphosis” for the first … [Read more...] about Finding the Other: The Metamorphosis and Compassion
Hunger and its Children
Schizophrenia and other diseases associated with starvation. The outward physical consequences of famine and severe malnutrition have been long known. They are the same everywhere. In his recent history of the Irish Famine, The Graves Are Walking, John Kelly describes them this way: “In the later stages of starvation, the eyelids inflame, the angular lines around the mouth … [Read more...] about Hunger and its Children
Sober
Malachy McCourt writes about being an alcoholic and what it was that finally made him stop drinking. Was I born alcoholic? That’s not clear but I know that the disease does not discriminate against race, gender, age, position, or religion. It is an incurable disease that can be handled by taking certain precautions, foremost of which is putting down the drink – anywhere but … [Read more...] about Sober