Tina Jackson was told her daughter Tionna - Miss T - most likely wouldn't survive. Born in 1995 with trisomy 8 mosaicism, a rare genetic condition, Miss T was labeled failure to thrive. She's now thirty years old, living independently, completing a hospital internship, and co-presenting keynote speeches with her mom. In this episode, Tina shares three decades of rare disease caregiving - including the 2022 hospitalization that landed Miss T on life support, and how CaringBridge helped Tina ho...
Jun 19
29 min
Mason was seventeen, a junior in high school, and a record-holding runner when he hit a ski jump going a little too fast and broke his T12 vertebra. He became paralyzed. The next morning, he woke up and said: we need to make a plan. In this episode, Mason and his mom Stacy talk about what paralysis really looks like - the losses that reveal themselves slowly, the community that showed up through CaringBridge and Craig Hospital, and how a teenage athlete became a disability advocate with a fol...
Jun 5
29 min
Paurvi Bhatt has spent her career responding to crises, from the HIV pandemic to global health financing, and has worked alongside former First Lady Rosalynn Carter on caregiving advocacy. But it wasn't until she became a caregiver herself that she understood what was missing. Paurvi grew up watching her father navigate the unimaginable: a wife in her twenties with cervical cancer, a mother dying of cancer in India, no car, no phone, and no way to reach family except by aerogram - the folded...
May 22
29 min
Cris Ross spent more than a decade serving as Chief Information Officer at Mayo Clinic, helping lead one of the most respected healthcare organizations in the world through periods of enormous change and complexity. Then, in 2018, he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Used to solving problems and carrying responsibility for others, Cris approached treatment the same way he approached work: stay focused, push forward, and keep going. But cancer - and eventually cancer recurrence - forced hi...
May 7
26 min
When Sally Zibrowski’s dad, Andy, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia in 2021 at age 71, her family began to quietly reorient around a new and uncertain reality. Over time, earlier signs - subtle behavioral changes, growing confusion, and moments of paranoia - began to make sense in a way that was both clarifying and heartbreaking. In this episode of The Bridges Between Us, Sally shares what it has meant to support her family through Alzheimer’s - not as the...
May 7
25 min
⚠️ Content note: This episode includes descriptions of a serious accident and traumatic injury. On a Sunday afternoon outside Minneapolis, Jeff Winston was in a life-altering motorcycle accident that he somehow survived - pulling himself safely to the side of the highway and calling for help. Just behind him, Jackie Klinkner, a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), noticed something wasn’t right and made a split-second decision to stop. Using what she had on hand, she stabilized Jeff...
May 7
38 min
Hosted by Andy Thieman, The Bridges Between Us is a podcast from CaringBridge featuring honest conversations about caregiving, resilience, connection, and the ways people show up for one another during health journeys. Through real stories from patients, caregivers, family members, and supporters, each episode explores what it means to navigate uncertainty, find hope, and feel less alone when life changes unexpectedly. Send us your comments. We'd love to hear from you.
Apr 30
2 min