Everything’s coming up roses, readers. 

Two weeks ago, I published my health care manifesto, outlining my vision for our future as patients. We must empower patients to take charge of their care, and Barred Owl Press is making educating patients our mission.

Today, I’ll showcase our next three articles, scheduled to run over the next two months. 

Our next edition’s theme: Talking to our docs.

The first essay is by a Florida political spouse about a doctor who gave her an early, and reckless, misdiagnosis: The doctor told her she was likely dying of a terminal illness. The writer examines how easily she might have forgone treatment altogether in the face of such dire, albeit inaccurate, news.

Our second piece is reported from the U.K. It’s about the language patients use to describe their symptoms, and how it should become more specific. Women’s diseases are more likely to be misdiagnosed in western medicine, a patriarchal system. So for now, the burden falls on women to improve their metaphors, so that their bigger problems like endometriosis don’t continue to be confused with basic period cramps.

The third essay is by another U.K. journalist who spent a year-and-a-half fighting to be believed by her doctors about her hyperthyroidism. The writer takes us from her hometown on England’s western peninsulas, to her college campus at Oxford, and then in her boyfriend’s town in the north, visit-by-visit with a string of physicians, and into the underbelly of their national health system.

Last but not least, I am thrilled to introduce Barred Owl Press + Kirsten Kramer’s Summer 2021 Collection! 

The entire collection is based on the roses illustration at the top of this note and the butterflies drawing from our Mental Health and Coronavirus essay. It’ll continue to roll out all summer. By fall, though, it’ll be gone.

So buy now!

Peace and love,

Alexandra