HEARING LOSS: Navigating throughout life with hearing difficulties poses many challenges that are often overlooked by the general public.

COLON CANCER: There was a time growing up in Nassau, and perhaps many places, when finding out someone had cancer was so rare that it was considered shocking.

ENDOMETRIOSIS: A popular theory amongst gardeners is that the lunar cycle can affect plant growth.

APPENDICITIS: In January of this year, the biggest volcanic eruption in three decades occurred in Tonga, a Polynesian country consisting of 169 islands scattered throughout the Southern Pacific Ocean.

PART 2: Following four years of the most agonizing chest pain imaginable, my patient was wheeled into the operating theater for her third heart surgery.

PART 1: Very few individuals can comprehend the intense and extreme mental toll placed on a person when multiple loved ones become sick at the same time.

ALCOHOLISM: Recently, one of my patients relayed her experience growing up with an alcoholic family member and she shares her story with you today.

CONGENITAL PORENCEPHALY: A common saying, widely attributed to ancient African cultures, asserts that it takes a village to raise a child

CROHN’S DISEASE: Spread across the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the chain of islands that encompass The West Indies are ripe with cultural observances.

ETERNAL LOVE: The proprietor of my after-school day care loved to watch soap operas.

RAPE: None of us can recall the exact details of the day that we’re born so our knowledge of that day is limited to what our parents tell us.

DOMESTIC ABUSE: Getting punched in the eye is a different experience altogether from getting punched anywhere else on the body.

DEATH: At any given moment, we will all die. How, when or where will never truly be known in advance.

DIET and COVID-19: Have you ever noticed that members of the Rastafarian community have largely remained relatively unscathed by the Covid-19 pandemic?

PRISON: There’s a stark difference between being captured and imprisoned versus being born into captivity.

SCHIZOPHRENIA: Every parent has a dream for their child. Some have intricate plans of what schools they should attend and what career they should choose.

HIV/AIDS: In 1992, Mike Tyson, the heavy-weight champion of the world, was charged for rape, tried and found guilty.

KNOCKED DOWN: In The Bahamas we have a special breed of dogs known as Potcakes. Colloquially named after the overcooked (burnt) rice at the bottom of a pot that nobody wants, these dogs are incredibly resilient.

OBESITY 3: Every human being has at least one physical characteristic that they’d like to change or, in the very least, enhance.

KIDNEY FAILURE: I have flat feet. My mom has flat feet, my dad, my siblings, my cousins. We’re just a happy flat-footed Cartwright family.