Medicine Personalized Medicine Personalized

Kerry Peterson is the director of the Body Donor Program at the University of Utah. He has also had a life-long fear of death and dying. In this episode hear his journey from beet picker to funeral director, and listen as he discusses his ongoing existential dread of what comes after life.

Today’s story is the tale of a mother, a father, their son and severe disease. As we listened to Marin and Dan Bywater describe the ordeal they underwent as their infant son Dylan suffered severe epileptic episodes that doctors could not fully explain and medicine could not adequately treat, we could feel the fear and vulnerability that young parents must feel as they try to do all within their power to protect the tender new life that has just entered theirs. Parents often describe an indescribable bond, pure love, that they feel for their new baby. How cruel it must feel when illness or injury invades that intimate space and threatens to tear the child away. Marin and Dan knew that having children would change their lives forever, but they had no idea the path it would lead them on. As it turned out, it would be a journey that would make them reassess everything they thought they knew about medicine, marriage and family. Join us as we walk it with them.

Love can strike like lightning—suddenly and unpredictably, and seemingly with no regard for the rest of what is happening in your life. You may have just accepted a new job in a distant city and plan to move away after meeting someone who appears the perfect match. Maybe it happens just when demands at work or school are ratcheting up and it seems that you need to decide between investing time and energy into a relationship with that person or in your pre-existing commitments. Imagine, now, that you meet this magic person right after a cancer diagnosis. That’s what happened to Danny when he met Kara, the woman who would become his wife. Perhaps having your life turned upside-down twice lands you back on your feet. Join as we explore what can happen when love and disease collide head on.

What is Medicine Personalized? An introduction to our podcast series.

Music is "Watchmaker's Daughter" by Reeder
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/