Theme: Bereavement: Maintaining Connection, Continuing Bonds

A Mom/MD reflects on how her daughter’s journey has impacted her own practice of medicine.

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A Mom/MD reflects on how her daughter’s journey has impacted her own practice of medicine.

In this Zoom interview with CPN, Michelle — a neurologist herself, and mother of Alex (age 7) and Julianna, who had a severe form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and died at age 5 — reflects on how her daughter’s journey has impacted her own practice of medicine. “Having gone through what we did, I empathize even more with my patients. I know a lot more about what it’s like to be a caregiver and that’s something that we are all exposed to in medicine but until you’ve done it, you have no idea what it is like to be a caregiver. ..I’ve never been afraid to have the conversations but I’m even less afraid of it now because it’s even harder when it’s a child.”