Essays | suerobins.com

Aug 15, 20233 min read

Against Sickness Shaming

There are many euphemisms for being sick: under the weather, unwell, out of sorts. When I had cancer, many people whispered the word...

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest: A commentary

Sue Robins

Aug 3, 20233 min read

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest: A commentary

I was immediately drawn to the cover of Dr. Sammy Winemaker and Dr. Hsien Seow’s new book Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest: 7 key to...

Sue Robins

Jul 25, 20236 min read

The Making of Big Love

This is a story about making a story. Telling the story behind the story might be meta, but art, like the video I created, does not just...

Sue Robins

Jul 12, 20234 min read

People With Disabilities Can Act

On Sunday July 9, 2023, I was sitting at a table in a ballroom with my youngest son Aaron and my husband Mike. We all had our Sunday best...

Sue Robins

Jun 20, 20232 min read

The Man With the Wall Around His Heart

I presented as a patient with sudden onset of abdominal issues who was terrified that her breast cancer had returned. My family physician...

Give a Duck: A good convo over a cup of tea

Sue Robins

Nov 20, 20223 min read

Give a Duck: A good convo over a cup of tea

This is the last in the series about my new Give a Duck Community. I see online spaces as a puzzle. No one site can give me everything I...

The Proximity of Mortality - A Visual Artist’s Journey Through Cancer

Sue Robins

Nov 9, 20222 min read

The Proximity of Mortality - A Visual Artist’s Journey Through Cancer

…sometimes simplicity is the most powerful spiritual stimulation. - Nicholas J Petrelli, M.D. On the surface, The Proximity of Mortality,...

Sue Robins

Oct 30, 20224 min read

My Better Way: Give a Duck Community

The second in a series Last month I wrote about my growing discomfort with Twitter that ended with the assertion: There’s got to be a...

A Health Care Rant: We are Heading Entirely in the Wrong Direction

Sue Robins

Oct 19, 20224 min read

A Health Care Rant: We are Heading Entirely in the Wrong Direction

Health care's raison d'être is to care for patients. If patients and caregivers aren't an organization's #1 stakeholder - the first...

Sue Robins

Sep 30, 20223 min read

Safe Spaces for Health Care Advocates

This essay is the first of a series The other day I posted this picture of me wearing an N95 mask on Twitter. I have a big-ish following...

Sue Robins

Aug 29, 20222 min read

A Remarkable Life

(Lorraine) helped her staff address their challenges, and recognize their joys, in taking care of patients and their families...and the...

There’s Got to Be a Better Way: Punking Health Care

Sue Robins

Aug 7, 20224 min read

There’s Got to Be a Better Way: Punking Health Care

There is a genre called solarpunk that is a creative way of describing a future state of the world where humanity has succeeded in...

Sue Robins

Jul 24, 20223 min read

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

How can we relate to stories that threaten our own? Some of us go towards the threat. We search and question and dig. Some of us...

Sue Robins

Jul 11, 20222 min read

Stay Soft Warriors

Recently I was asked how our family deals with the heavy weight of advocacy work. I rabble-rouse in health care for a living and my...

Sue Robins

Jun 26, 20223 min read

All Teams Need a Deanna Troi

I took a professional communications certificate program a few years ago. The instructors had us take a personality test during the...

Sue Robins

May 5, 20223 min read

a rainy afternoon during the pandemic

It is Cinco de Mayo, so I stopped at the Mexican grocer by the lake with all the ducks. A lady in the shop was wearing her mask under her...

Sue Robins

Apr 18, 20224 min read

How COVID is Like Cancer

I’ve been musing on the many parallels between the government’s response to COVID and my own cancer experience. I was diagnosed and...

Sue Robins

Mar 27, 20222 min read

"Dying is a Big Health Problem"

My son Aaron created this video to be included in a subscription package for the Gathering of Kindness in Australia. (Interested in a...

Sue Robins

Mar 21, 20221 min read

my offerings

My professional has always been driven by my personal. I wear one hat and it is me. I'm fortunate to work in an area that I feel...

Sue Robins

Feb 22, 20223 min read

It's Not Just You

When my youngest was in grade one, he spent a lot of time in the principal's office. I remember the shame of being called to pick him...