Ryan McCarthy is an internal medicine physician.
I saw shocking photos from Northern Italy and New York City, reviewed my life insurance, and thought about my three kids. I didn’t chicken out, but I thought about it long and hard as I sat, sipping tea through trembling lips, preparing—whatever that meant. In the end, I got COVID twice while working the frontlines. A few scars, disorders of my hearing, smelling, and tasting. I am dealing. Today, COVID …
Dan died, and I became a writer. I didn’t know it, but I did. Back then, I wrote one story, almost by accident, trying to make sense of my personal chaos. That essay chronicled a small-town doctor losing a beloved middle-aged friend who was rapidly fading from pancreatic cancer. It felt like being dropped into a horrible Lifetime movie come to life, where one day in August 2016, Dan developed …
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