Physician. Historian.
What is Polio? The oldest documentation of polio dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptians. Carvings and paintings from that time period show adults and children walking with canes and visibly deformed legs. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century, as medicine was embracing scientific principles of diagnosis and description, that a standardized…
This year has been an exhausting year for all of us, and we have all faced our own struggles in our own lives. In healthcare, we have been forced to deal with the emergence of the COVID pandemic, with all of its attendant suffering. Healthcare workers are constantly adapting to new information, worried about being…
Appalachia’s Role in National Politics In 2016, Donald Trump won 95% of all Appalachian Counties. I don’t think anyone who actually lived in Appalachia at the time was terribly surprised. It apparently shocked the rest of the country. As it attempted to explain this, popular media soon turned its eyes to the region. As NPR…
Stereotypes and Reality I’ve debated covering this topic for some time now. I know that this is an important piece of our region’s history. It’s an important driving force behind so many of our epidemics, but I didn’t even know how to begin to attack it. I also wasn’t sure that I wanted to address…
Six-Dollar Grapes In Morgantown there is a very large Kroger which the locals jokingly refer to as “Gucci Kroger”. It has a Starbucks, a huge international food section, aisles of vegan/vegetarian food, healthy meal-prep sections, a large meat and seafood counter, and a variety of organic and locally-sourced dairy and egg products. The produce section…
Three Babies, Three Decades This was a difficult post to write. I’m a mother of a 2 year old little girl, and it made my heart ache and my chest tight to think of losing her like so many Appalachian women lost their babies before me. It’s a difficult post to read. I’ve dispersed adorable…
Why Epidemics? I’ve been mulling over what I would write next for a couple months now. When COVID19 hit, I was in the middle of a series on Appalachian women. However, COVID has made me think about other diseases our society has faced. Diseases strike Appalachia hard. We tend to start out already being pummeled…
Harrison County Mayors Discuss Fixing West Virginia Roads[1] West Virginia Officials: Staffing Issues Slowing Road Repair[2] West Virginia’s commissioner of highways tours 50 miles of roads in Marshall County[3] Miller Brings Out Platform—Hits School Politics and Condition of Roads in Talk at Armory[4] Bad Road Conditions Trigger ‘Blockade’[5] Gov. Justice announces plans to fix secondary…