Two weeks ago, during what I thought would be a routine telepsychiatry appointment, Monalisa told me something I wasn’t prepared to hear.

Our next appointment would be our last.

We were reviewing how the medications were doing. A recent increase in Effexor had helped resolve a brief resurgence of depressive symptoms that had begun to interfere with my quality of life. Because of the dose change, we had returned to meeting every couple of weeks.

We talked about life more broadly—how the boys were doing, how work was going, and how things felt surprisingly stable for now, even with a major move to Chicago looming a few months down the road.

Continue reading “How do you say Goodbye?” →