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The year I didn't survive
Grief and new motherhood have transformed my brain, my body, and my sense of self.
Bess Stillman
I'm Bess Stillman: ER doctor, writer, recent widow to Jake Seliger, who died of SCC of the tongue, and soon-to-be Mom to Athena. I write about the challenges of being corporeal. Here you'll find essays on life, death, cancer, love, health & healthcare. Click to read Everything Is An Emergency, by Bess Stillman, a…
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Visit bessstillman.substack.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Oct 2023 – Sep 2025
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Grief gets an expiration date, just like us
Grief gets an expiration date. Just like us.
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Remembering things that haven't happened yet
How will I know what I need to hear in a future I can't anticipate? Who will I be, and what will she want?
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Debugging the Doctor Brain: Who's teaching doctors how to think?
Who's teaching doctors how to think?
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Please be dying, but not too quickly, part 2: The patient's perspective
The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing: from investigator calls to taking back (almost) all the bad things I've ever said about New Jersey
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mRNA vaccines: let's eradicate herpes, cure cancer, and be sick a whole lot less
Quick, inexpensive, made-to-order treatments
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Days of Awe: The clinical trial drug that might save my husband's life
"G’mar Chatimah Tovah” – May you be inscribed into the Book of Life