Making Sense of Medicine
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Disclaimer: I am not providing personal medical advice or establishing a doctor-patient relationship. This site is for informational purposes only.
Why You Need Church
March, 2024
And church needs you, too. Pandemics are isolating. Four years ago, so much was unknown about COVID-19, but one thing was certain: It spread from person to person. Hence the need to keep people separate. This meant avoiding group gatherings, which was painful, because we are social creatures. For Christians, the gathering we missed the most was church. I know none of us want to go back to those early months, even for a minute. For medical practitioners in particular, the confusion of the unknown was compounded by the sorrow of knowing so many people were sickening and dying. I ...
How Long is Grief?
January, 2024
How long is grief? I guess what I’m really asking is, “Does grief ever end?” Last week I had a five-hour drive ahead of me, so I looked at my list of downloaded audiobooks borrowed from the library. Seasons of Sorrow by Tim Challies was one of them. The subtitle was “The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God.” That was all I knew about it. Who had recommended that I read it? I did not recall. It was due in a few days, so I started listening. Within a minute I was plunged back into the world of grief I ...
The 100th Birthday Party
November, 2023
Permit me to humbly suggest the following: If you are ever invited to a 100th birthday party, consider attending. And if the centenarian is one of your dearly departed mother’s most treasured friends, do whatever you can to attend. And if she was also someone you yourself loved since you were a child because she stayed involved during sleepover weekends with her daughter (involving dress-up playing, and pool swimming, and butter making), then attending her party needs to be your highest priority. And if, during your college years, she poured love and comfort into your life when you were far ...
Validation
October, 2023
There’s a short film I’ve watched over and over. It’s brilliant and profound. It speaks to something we all long for, and yet receive precious little of: Validation. That’s also its title. The film opens with a sad, bedraggled man bringing his parking ticket to the attendant for validation. “Ah,” I thought the first time I saw it, “this movie is about that kind of validation. The parking lot kind.” But the attendant does much more than stamp his ticket. He also looks, really looks, at the bedraggled man, and says, “You… You are awesome. You have an amazing face. You’ve got ...
Not Progressive, Not Conservative, But Christian
September, 2023
Whenever I hear the word “polarization,” I can’t help but think of cell division. Specifically? Anaphase, which perhaps you remember from high school biology. All the organelles have been doubled and are bunched at the edges—in moments it will split down the middle and become two cells. Anaphase is polarized. All those organelles are squinching themselves on one side of the cell or the other. It’s as if they can’t get far enough away from the other pole. Sound familiar? Just like a certain current political landscape, perhaps? The United States doesn’t seem very “united” right now. Progressives are getting more ...
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Author, Physician, Survivor
Meet Amy
Amy Givler is a family physician and writer in Monroe, Louisiana. She and her fellow-physician husband Don have long cared for the medically underserved both in this country and in others. She wrote her book, Hope in the Face of Cancer: A Survival Guide for the Journey You Did Not Choose, to help cancer patients cope with the new and shocking diagnosis -- so they can move forward and get the help they need.
My Book
Hope in the Face of Cancer
“My aunt is still fighting her battle, and she would recommend this book to anyone who is on the same journey.”
- Amazon review
Amy Givler, M.D., a cancer survivor, shares her experience and the stories of others with the voice of encouragement, faith, and strength she so desperately needed at the point of her diagnosis. With medical knowledge and insight into the path to come, Dr. Givler is able to offer answers and hope as she discusses: looking at cancer through the lens of hope; seeking, evaluating, and making decisions for treatment; drawing closer to God along the journey; and facing family and friends.
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