When Jane Fischer’s daughter Suzy was born in 1974, doctors said she would never walk, talk, or learn. Suzy spent the next five decades proving them wrong. It wasn’t until Suzy was in her late 30s that the family finally learned the name for what she’d been living with all along: Joubert syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. Today, Suzy works in a preschool and lives on her own with support. In this episode, Jane discusses what it was like to raise a daughter with disabilities, push past the doctors’ predictions, and help Suzy build a life of her own.

- Jane Fischer on Tell Me What It’s Like

• The day Suzy was born, and the doctors’ advice to send her away
• Finding help for a child with disabilities before Google
• How raising Suzy tested her marriage
• Shadowing Suzy at school, and the difference between inclusion and tolerance
• Why doctors call Suzy a medical miracle
• How a decades-long mystery was finally named Joubert syndrome
• What she’d go back and tell herself in that hospital room

• If You Knew Suzy: Pushing Past the Boundaries of Never by Jane Fischer
• Joubert syndrome
• ECLC of New Jersey
• Maplebrook School
• Jespy House

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For more than 25 years, Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval has treated women with breast and gynecological cancers. Throughout her practice, she’s realized that women going through cancer need more than treatment. They need to understand their care, stay organized, and have the right support around them so they can be active participants in their own care. In this episode, she talks about why she became an oncologist, what it’s really like on the doctor’s side of the room, and how she’s helping patients feel empowered."

- Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval on Tell Me What It's Like

• How watching her mother’s frustration with her grandmother’s doctors shaped her path
• Walking out of the LSAT and choosing medical school instead
• What it’s like to deliver hard news, and how she handles the emotional weight
• How cancer treatment has changed over 25 years, and is like “night and day”
• The day she spent her lunch hour organizing a patient’s records into a binder – and why
• Why telling a friend or family member to “call me if you need anything” doesn’t work, and a better way patients can ask for help

• Calming the Cancer Chaos by Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval
• Dr. Troso's website
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

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• Follow Tell Me What It’s Like in your favorite podcast app
• Leave a rating & review — it helps others find the show
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Mentioned in this episode:

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Dr. Winston Vickers has spent decades studying one of America's big cats, the mountain lion. He's tracked them, collared them, and even studied their poop, all to help Southern California's mountain lions survive. A veterinarian who went back to school mid-career to study big cats, he shares what it's like to come face to face with a mountain lion, why highways are pushing some populations toward extinction, and why killing one lion doesn't solve the problem.

- Dr. Winston Vickers on Tell Me What It’s Like

Hear Dr. Vickers discuss:

• How he went back to school to study mountain lions after a 20 year vet career
• How you trap a mountain lion (it involves roadkill)
• The diseases threatening them, from avian flu to feline leukemia
• How one freeway split a population and led to dangerous inbreeding
• What scat-sniffing dogs reveal about what lions eat
• What it was like to collar his first mountain lion
• Close encounters with mountain lions
• Why "you can't kill your way out of the problem"
• Why there seem to be more lions in the suburbs
• Why mountain lions keep whole ecosystems in balance

Mentioned in this episode:

• Learn more about the California Mountain Lion Project at UC Davis
• Listen to A Path for Mountain Lions by The Nature Conservancy, featuring Dr. Vickers
• View the mountain lion tracker

About Dr. Vickers:

Dr. T. Winston Vickers is a wildlife research veterinarian with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. For 20 years he directed or co-directed mountain lion studies across California, and he has studied mountain lions and other wildlife for 23 years. His work focuses on why mountain lions die, how they move, road crossings, genetics, and how they interact with people.

- Dr. Winston Vickers on Tell Me What It’s Like