Dementia is a progressive condition that results in decline in cognitive function. People with dementia have increasing difficulties with short term memory, thinking, and reasoning. For family members, it can be hard to watch the decline in a loved one who is struggling with dementia. Interacting when someone has dementia can be difficult. Following these three golden rules can help.

“I heard you and my husband Bill went on a tour of our pantry recently,” Mary said. “Somehow you magically shrank down so you could get to the back of the cupboard.” It’s true, Bill and I had a nice time inspecting the cupboards. “Do you think we could explore our refrigerator, too?” she added. “He said he had fun, and I don’t want to be left out!”

The other day, my husband sent me a text with a link to a story about old food. Someone had found 25-year-old mayonnaise that looked like caramel.

Spring is finally here, and for many of us that brings the joy of returning to outdoor activities, planning summer vacations, and… well, allergies. Depending on the allergen, people can suffer from allergies any time of year, but spring is a particularly common time in our part of the world to hear my patients complain of seasonal allergies.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” It was my first spring in N.D. and I was talking with some tree-care professionals in the Bismarck area.

We tend to hang onto things in our family, all of us, except, perhaps, our son. If I give him things, I’ll later find out he sold the items. I recently offered him a chair, one we bought him when he was in college, from our basement.

Those of us who make our homes in the rural midwest understand that we face medical challenges our countrymen in more populated areas don’t. For example, there are two pediatric rheumatologists in the whole state of South Dakota. . . and they are both based in Fargo. In contrast, there are 10 in the Twin Cities with the University of Minnesota alone. In western South Dakota, you are nearly 150 miles away from emergency access to a neurosurgeon, assuming you can go by air. No matter where you are in Connecticut, that help is no more than 50 miles away.

One of my students posed the question, “Why does tradition suggest that we should plant our seed potatoes on Good Friday?” Yes, my student stumped me and motivated me to research the origins of this advice.

“Just think, in a few months, this street will be covered with a canopy of green leaves,” my husband commented as we drove home. I was looking at a precarious nest perched on a high, brown, leafless branch.

When I first moved to Brookings, the primary care physicians took care of their own patients in the hospital. We would round patients in the morning before clinic or try to sneak over during lunch or after clinic. While I loved taking care of patients in the hospital, it was hard to juggle the responsibilities of both giving my attention to the patients in the hospital while seeing people in the clinic. Any time the hospital nurse had a question; my clinic nurse would have to interrupt a clinic visit or wait for me between patients. This could lead to some less-than-ideal times where I was being pulled in multiple directions at once.