Grief is not a linear process. I lost my mom nearly 20 years ago to pancreatic cancer, caught late partially because her Crohn’s Disease required the use of steroids for decades. I wasn’t ready. No one is, really. For better or worse, parents shape us both consciously and unconsciously. My mother was the one who shaped how I related to my condition.

There is no such thing as a chronic condition that comes free from psychological issues. One of the most common is the adjustment to being different. We are social animals. From the time we are young, we do everything we can to fit in to our peer group. By definition, a chronic diagnosis puts you in the “different” category. Even if it’s an invisible illness, even if no one knows about it, in your head, you have become “other”.

What is the public option? It’s a term that’s been tossed around pretty freely since the 2020 candidates released their healthcare proposals. But ask three people and you get five different answers. We come by our confusion honestly.

So, when it all boils down, what do you need to know?

I’m lucky. With a few notable exceptions, everything I have been diagnosed with since I was a teenager has made sense in the context of what I already had. The meningitis was a lucky guess, and the diabetes took longer than it should have, but there was no mystery in any of them. But sometimes that’s not what happens. I have spoken to several patients in the last few months who have been through the wringer before they got a correct diagnosis.

If you’re reading this blog, it means you’re one of the millions of people who have been diagnosed with something. Or you’re close to someone who has. This is never a fun process but there are some steps you can take to make it easier on yourself.

Last year was a marvel of health advancements – precision medicine, 3D printing to tailor medical devices to the patient, scanning visor for stroke diagnosis, moving past open-heart surgery for valve replacement, tons of AI advances – the list goes on. It’s a big profitable market and as long as it stays that way, we will continue to see progress that blows our minds. Even as 2020 begins, AI is doing quite well diagnosing breast cancer.

One of the best things about the holidays is getting to spend time with the family and friends you may not get to see very often. For many of us, that means traveling to make that happen. For both host and traveler, there can be difficulties.

It’s been a few weeks since Senator Elizabeth Warren released her plan to pay for Medicare for All. I confess, I had hope. Senator Warren knows a boatload more than I do about economics and the mechanisms that would have to be in place to pay for a multi-trillion dollar government program. Now, it appears that in the process of laying out her plan and seeing her own plan laid bare, she has unconvinced herself.