INTIMA FALL 2024 | NON-FICTION

Click on the title of the essay to read

A Genesis | Victoria Johnson

Before a baby is born, the fears, excitement and anxiety surrounding the blessed event mount. For a mom who’s a doctor, the guilt-inducing internal monologue grows louder every day.

A Promise of Rest | Ronald Lands

When a longtime patient decides it’s time to die—but her longtime doctor finds it hard to accept the inevitable—what happens?

An Unlikely Friend | Jackie Greenwood

Even in the formality of a clinical encounter, clinicians form an attachment to patients, especially eccentric ones, for reasons not always clear to themselves.

Family Album | Kavita Parmar

Think about a time when you weren’t storing up memories: Being a parent means many years focusing on health, children and motherhood, all the while reflecting on whether your choices are the right ones.

The Hairbrush | Heather Isaacs

Caught in a medical conundrum with a patient locked in a state of terminal agitation, a chaplain asks for a moment to speak to him and finds the way to peace and resolution.

House of Pain | Vilmarie Sanchez-Rothkegel

This meditation on language, body, chronic pain and MS will make you pause to reflect on the way the world views pain.

How to Find a Comet | Carol Scott-Conner

What was in the stars for a stargazing surgeon? A story about looking up, looking back and looking forward from a very grounded life on earth.

Invisible Thread | Aishwarya Ghonge 

Genetics is a funny thing in this heartfelt essay about parents and prostate cancer, when to stay and when to go and growing up as a slightly-morbid little girl.

Legs in Motion | Alexis Drutchas

After losing those we love, we think about our memories of them and ponder the unasked questions.

The Lost Father | Kerry Malawista

Long after experiencing a childhood event, we may live it out as an adult in inauspicious ways.

My Body, Your Body | Lauren Reyes

Anatomy class becomes a meditation on honoring the body, language, stories, one’s ancestors and oneself.

Pain Boss | Suzanne Travis

Certain patients make an indelible impression because of their generosity, flamboyance, intelligence and wit, even in the face of dying.

Paper Crowns | Abigail DeNike

In the pediatric oncology wing, a medical student learns how to summon strength from a young patient princess.

Rekindling a Physician's Soul | Zoran Naumovski

What does it take to find solace after pandemic burnout? Strangely enough, a doctor discovers trauma is the best medicine on a frantic Florida beach on Memorial Day.

Sea Glass | Alexandra Godfrey

Going back in time resurfaces memories, some sharp and bright, others muted and only now truly understandable.

The Valleys Between Us | Sophia Gauthier

Tena means, again, in Swahili, as an American pediatric fellow observes in the ‘death book' at a children’s hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

The Work of Love | Amanda Ruth

Connecting the emotions—hugging her child at home and treating children at work —prompts deep reflection on a daily basis for a pediatric intensivist.