Exploring the Jungle - a Column by Mary Lott

Living with cold agglutinin disease involves cruel curveballs

“Oooh, poor me,” I groaned from the bathroom. I directed some mean thoughts toward one of my boys, who’d had a stomach ailment two days earlier. “I always get their germs.” I began feeling ill on Nov. 12, and little did I know what the next three weeks would have…

New CAD treatments, like reading progress, prove growth is possible

My heart sank when I came across a report on X recently. “Students who begin behind tend to stay behind,” the report from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) noted. It added that third-grade test scores “remain powerful predictors of long-term academic trajectories.” Imagine…

What if Sadie Hawkins Day made me the doctor?

“Let’s get some blood work done,” my doctor suggested. A minute later, the nurse appeared, tray in hand. I saw the yellow rubber tourniquet, the syringe, and a tray of vials. I looked for the baby heel warmers to wrap the blood vials as soon as my blood was drawn.

Adapting and finding balance in caregiver-patient relationships

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” Blanche DuBois explains in the closing line of Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire.” DuBois is a Southern lady in the declining years of her life, attempting to adapt to a changing world. Because her abilities are no longer the…

Mosquito mischief put me on the path to my CAD diagnosis

Lurking out there amid my tropical splendor is a hidden foe. Don’t try to find it in the picture. This creature is too small to see unless you’re close to it. Yet, it is the world’s deadliest animal. My family and I have had a few run-ins with it.

Coping with cross-cultural connections and CAD

“Don’t use that glass! Get one from the cupboard,” I sternly told one of our boys last week. Our next-door neighbors were coming over to visit immediately after supper. I’d already prepped a serving tray containing glasses, napkins, a water pitcher, and freshly picked pineapple cut into slices. I do…