Dear Mr. Dad: My wife and I desperately want to be parents. But after years of trying and tens of thousands spent on fertility treatments, our doctor is telling us that we should either consider using donor sperm or eggs or adopt. We’re considering those options, but I’m finding this whole thing rather emasculating and...Continue reading
By Eric Bothwell, DDS, MPH, PhD and Tamara James, PhD As the Obama administration winds down its eight years of oversight and support of the health care needs of American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) from federally recognized tribes, a brief reflection on what has been accomplished and what might still be accomplished is worthwhile....Continue reading
Most people don’t know I’m bipolar. After years of loving kindness shown to me by my wife, therapy with a caring and skilled therapist, and medications to help keep me in balance, my illness is in remission. Even if you had known me when I was the most out-of-control and crazy you probably wouldn’t have...Continue reading
Most people don’t think too much about daylight savings time. Sure, when it kicks in (usually in March), we grouse about losing an hour of precious sleep. But within a day or two, life goes back to normal. And when it ends (usually in November), we love the extra hour of sleep. But after a...Continue reading
The go-to treatment in most cases of testicular cancer is the surgical removal of the affected testicle. This procedure will keep the scrotal sac in place so that everything will look (just about) the same on the outside. But many men opt to replace the missing testicle with a prosthesis, a testicular implant. Although common...Continue reading
Educating yourself about your own health and any diagnosis you may receive is imperative these days, when there is so much information available and so many options. There must be some measure of trust between patient and doctor, but doing some research on your own and figuring out what’s right for you doesn’t mean you...Continue reading
At a recent visit to a chain restaurant, I noticed that the description of each menu item included information about calories and fat. I immediately lost my appetite, but eventually relented and ordered a salad. On the way out, I asked the manager whether the new nutritional information had changed what customers were ordering. “Not...Continue reading
For young children, those first Halloweens can be lots of fun—wearing costumes, staying up late, counting their haul of candy, and sneaking extra pieces when parents aren’t looking. But Halloween also worries me a bit because I’ve seen how easy it is for kids to mistake medicines for candies. As a dad, I know that...Continue reading
We all want nothing more than to be understood. But for some kids, that isn’t as easy as it seems. Learning and attention issues are much more common in children than most people realize. In fact, in the U.S., 1 in 5 children struggles with brain-based learning and attention issues that affect reading, writing, math,...Continue reading
For Eric Dunlap, the diagnosis began with a throbbing pain in his upper chest during an intense home workout. It was 2000, and Dunlap, then 34, was beginning to settle into the American Dream just outside of Atlanta. He was a few years into a marriage with his college sweetheart, and was the father of...