burn survivor

The Problem with "Women Talking"

Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is a beautiful ensemble piece, in which women gather to discuss how to handle a violent crisis. The...

Disfigurement: A Call for Awareness

(republished, with permission, from the Pennsylvania Psychologist) When I was four years old, I survived a fire which burned away my...

Your Accidental Activist

Somehow, I have become an activist. This was never my intent. All I ever planned was to write my memoir. I did not intend to be a public...

"Burn Baby Burn"

[Author note: In recognition of this back-to-school time, here is a reprint of my blog about bullying. Many children are bravely...

Happy To Be “Too Sensitive”

My mother used to tell me, “You're too sensitive.” It was a repeated refrain, deployed when I cried too long or hurt too much. She said...

A Dose of Compassion, Doctor's Orders

I have been a patient and a doctor, on both sides of the bed. I have sat with injured people, processing their trauma. I have also been...

What the Shaman Said

“The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.” Albert Einstein Life takes us interesting directions, and mine recently...

Hey Hollywood – Scars Don’t Make You Evil

At the end of a weary work week, I sprawled on the couch ready to watch a movie. I wanted to be entertained by someone else’s problems...

My Brother, the Whale, and the Duck

My brother Marc and I were born exactly four years and 51 weeks apart. It was just my birthday, and on February 19th, it would be his. As...

Angels who leave Christmas trees

When I was four years old, an angel left me my very own Christmas tree. I lay on a soft twin bed, tucked in the corner of a wood-paneled...

A Tough Fall

(Part 5 in the series Choosing More Surgery) I spoke to a psychic two weeks before my recent operations. The psychic is a friend, an...

Somewhere Over My Rainbow(s)

(Part 4 in the series Choosing More Surgery) I have always loved “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I identify with Dorothy in The Wizard of...

I Hate Walter: Choosing more surgery (Part II)

(For Part I of this series, click here) “You need to make friends with it,” advised my surgeon. She smiled at me, her long straight...